Posts by Anita Diamant
Dinner party of my dreams: The Jewish Book Council asked me who, among Jewish authors (living or dead), I would invite to a dinner party.
Anita Diamant: 30 Days, 30 Authors in celebration of Jewish Bo…To commemorate 90 years of celebrating Jewish books, Jewish Book Council invited 30 leading Jewish authors to answer a few questions on reading, writing, and living Jewish literature. Today, Anita Diamant, author of THE BOSTON GIRL and THE RED TENT, and nine other books! Go…
Read MoreNo Olympics for Boston … my ambivalence
There are a lot of reasons I am relieved that the Olympics aren’t coming to Boston. One big bonus will be the end (eventually) to the loud and circular arguments about whether it would be a boon or a disaster. I’m even happier that no more money will be spent selling and fighting the idea. I do…
Read MoreIn spring a woman’s fancy turns to —
I am somewhat obsessed with clothes. I recently packed away my winter woolies and discovered that my warm-weather wardrobe was down to three dresses, three wearable pairs of capris and a mess of t-shirts, where mess = stained and pilled. (I must have done a thorough edit last fall.) So I started shopping, looking to have my fancy struck. But in the process…
Read MoreOne moderator + three writers =
= snoozefest, right? We sit behind a table and take turns addressing the audience. The moderator introduces. The writers pontificate. Another panel on “[Jewish] Women of the Book” is forgotten almost before it’s over. Not this time. Thanks to Bari Weiss, Associate Books Editor at the Wall Street Journal, the questions were not all softballs.…
Read MoreHistory at Eye Level
Reviewers tend to describe my novels as “character driven.” I not entirely sure what that means but I’ve been repeating it for years. It suggests, I suppose, that my fiction is longer on dialogue than plot or physical description. Given the title, cover image and first-person narrator of my new novel, it would be fair…
Read MoreWBUR radio interview about The Boston Girl
Thanks to Anthony Brooks and WBUR’s “Radio Boston” for this opportunity to talk about my new book.http://radioboston.wbur.org/2014/12/16/diamant-boston-girl
Read MoreWhere did you get the idea for The Boston Girl?
The ideas for my novels come to me in different ways. I picked up a booklet in a Gloucester bookstore and discovered the history of the oldest settlement on Cape Ann and The Last Days of Dogtown followed. On my first visit to Israel, a tour took me to a living history museum called Atlit,…
Read MoreAnita Diamant on THE BOSTON GIRL
Lucky me
Every morning, The American Academy of Poets sends me the Poem of the Day. I always open the email, though often I never get past the first line. If it’s too pretentious or precious, I hit “delete,” pronto. But some days, I read a poem I can’t bear to lose and drag it into a file.Recently I trolled…
Read MoreNamaste, Mr. Iyengar
I never quite bought into the idea of the yoga “community.” I’ve taken yoga classes for more than twenty years from a succession of teachers in rooms full of familiar-looking faces whose names I never knew. And yet, the news of B.K.S. Iyengar’s passing on Aug. 20 at the age of 95 felt like a…
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