Rachel Kadish (born August 12, 1969) is an American writer of fiction and non-fiction and the author of several novels and a novella. Her novel The Weight of Ink won the National Jewish Book Award in 2017.[1]

Rachel Kadish
Born (1969-08-12) August 12, 1969 (age 55)
New York City, U.S.
OccupationNovelist, short story writer
NationalityAmerican
EducationSolomon Schechter School of Westchester
Princeton University (AB)
New York University (MA)
Period2006–present
GenreFiction, historical fiction
Notable worksFrom a Sealed Room (2006)
Tolstoy Lied: a Love Story (2007)
The Weight of Ink (2017)
Website
rachelkadish.com Edit this at Wikidata

Personal life

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Born in New York City on August 12, 1969, Kadish grew up in Westchester County, New York, where she attended middle school at Solomon Schechter School of Westchester in Hartsdale, and New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle. Kadish received an A.B. from Princeton University in 1991 and an M.A. from New York University in 1994.

Her novel Tolstoy Lied: a Love Story won the John Gardner Fiction Prize in 2007.[2] Her novel, The Weight of Ink, won the National Jewish Book Award in 2017,[3] the Julia Ward Howe Prize in 2018,[4] and the Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award in 2018.[5]

She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.[6]

She is involved in New Voices,[7] a project using the arts to work for tolerance.

Writing career

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Rachel Kadish's 2017 novel, The Weight of Ink, winner of the National Jewish Book Award, is a work of historical fiction set in London in the 1660s and in the early twenty-first century. It tells the interwoven stories of two women: Ester Velasquez, an immigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi just before the plague hits London; and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history.

Her short stories and essays have been read on US National Public Radio[8] and have appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Paris Review,[9] Salon, and The Pushcart Prize Anthology.

Kadish has also written in Quartz magazine about Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat who saved her family during World War II[10] and in The Paris Review on the importance of historical fiction in illuminating forgotten history.[11]

She is a graduate of Princeton University and New York University.

Bibliography

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Novels

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  • From a Sealed Room (2006). Boston: Houghton Mifflin ISBN 978-0618562411
  • Tolstoy Lied: a Love Story (2007). Boston: Mariner Books ISBN 978-0618919833
  • The Weight of Ink (2017). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ISBN 978-0544866461

Novellas

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References

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  1. ^ "Past Winners". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved July 28, 2024.
  2. ^ "John Gardner Book Award winner, 2007". Binghamton University.
  3. ^ Bernstein, Jesse (January 10, 2018). "Announcing the Winners of the National Jewish Book Awards". Tablet.
  4. ^ "Julia Ward Howe Prize Winners 1997 to 2022". Boston Authors Club. Retrieved July 28, 2024.
  5. ^ "Jewish Fiction Award". Association of Jewish Libraries. Retrieved July 28, 2024.
  6. ^ "Rachel Kadish Bio". Lesley University Faculty Directory.
  7. ^ "VOICES BETWEEN - THE CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS". Stories for Society.
  8. ^ "Hanukkah Lights 2007: Stories Of The Season". National Public Radio. December 1, 2007.
  9. ^ "Writing the Lives of Forgotten Women". The Paris Review. April 26, 2018.
  10. ^ "A Japanese stranger saved my family from the Holocaust. How can I repay him?". Quartz.
  11. ^ "Writing the Lives of Forgotten Women". The Paris Review.
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