Seymour Public Library is excited to participate in The Yiddish Book Center’s “Stories of Exile” Reading Groups for Public Libraries, a reading and discussion program to engage teens and adults in thinking about experiences of displacement, migration, and diaspora. In this program, librarians organize reading groups to discuss three books of Yiddish literature in translation, and one book related to the experience of a community served by their library.
The Yiddish Book Center, located in Amherst, MA since 1997, prioritizes the celebration of Yiddish Language and Culture. For this reading group, a Seymour Public Library staff member attended the three-day workshop hosted by the Yiddish Book Center and made possible by a gift from Sharon Karmazin.
The book discussions are free and will be held in the Lower Level of the Seymour Public Library in February and March. Selections from each of two remaining books will be chosen for discussion. For those that are interested, accompanying video will be available pertaining either to the book, the author, or the book’s translator. Books are available to borrow at the circulation desk of the Seymour Public Library with a valid library card. If you do not have a library card and would like to attend any of the discussions, please contact Suzanne Garvey, Library Director at [email protected] or call 203 – 888-3903 ex. 5.
March’s selected books and discussion dates are listed below.
Tuesday, March 5, 2024 at 6:00 p.m.-The Glatstein Chronicles by Jacob Glatstein
In 1934, prior to World War II, Jacob Glatstein, who had been born in Lublin, Poland, traveled from his current home in New York City back to Poland to visit his dying mother. He used this experience as the basis for two semi-autobiographical novellas, known as the Glatstein Chronicles. We will discuss a selection TBD of this work.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. – The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives edited by Viet Thanh NGuyen
Viet Thanh Nguyen, the Pulitzer Prize – winning author of The Sympathizer, fled as a child with most of his family to the US in 1975 after the fall of Saigon. This book contains 17 stories petitioned by Viet Thanh Nguyen from fellow refugees- each narrating the individual author’s experience of displacement. Selections for discussion TBD.
This series is made possible due to support from the Yiddish Book Center. The Yiddish Book Center’s “Stories of Exile” Reading Groups for Public Libraries is made possible by a gift from Sharon Karmazin.
Seymour Public Library is located at 46 Church ST, Seymour, CT 06483. To register for this free discussion series or for more information about the series including the March discussion books, please email [email protected] or call 203 – 888-3903 ex. 5.
