Nextbook Comes To LA

They’re having a festival at UCLA June 29.

Here’s the one thing I’m interested in:

Writers Shalom Auslander and Daphne Merkin consider the therapist’s couch as a particularly Jewish space, from Freud and the origins of psychoanalysis to Woody Allen and In Treatment to their own musings on the “Jewish science.” They are joined in conversation by Joanna Smith Rakoff, editor of nextbook.org.

Auslander, ShalomShalom Auslander is the author of the critically acclaimed short story collection Beware of God and the memoir Foreskin’s Lament, a New York Times Notable Book for 2007. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, The New York Times and The New York Times Magazine. He is a regular contributor to nextbook.org and public radio’s This American Life.

Merkin, DaphneDaphne Merkin is the author of a novel, Enchantment, which won the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for best work of American-Jewish fiction, as a well as the non-fiction collection Dreaming of Hitler. She has published fiction, reviews, and essays in The New Yorker, The New Republic, The New Leader, American Scholar, and The New York Times Book Review. She has also contributed to numerous anthologies, ranging from Women On Divorce: A Bedside Companion to Out of the Garden: Women Writers on the Bible. She is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, where she writes on matters of sex, style, and culture.

Joanna Smith RakoffJoanna Smith Rakoff is Editor in Chief of nextbook.org. Her novel, Brooklyn, is forthcoming from Scribner in 2009. She has written for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Vogue, and many other publications.

About Luke Ford

Raised a Seventh-Day Adventist at Avondale College in Australia, Luke Ford moved to California in 1977. He graduated from Placer High School in 1984, reported the news at KAHI/KHYL radio for three years, attended Sierra College and UCLA, was largely bedridden by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for six years, and converted to Judaism in 1993. From 1997-2007, Luke made his living from blogging. Living by Beverly Hills (Alexander90210.com), he now teaches the Alexander Technique (moving the way the body likes to move). Lessons cost $100 each and last about 45 minutes. In 2011, Luke completed a three-year teaching course at the Alexander Training Institute of Los Angeles. His personal Alexander Technique website is Alexander90210.com. Luke is the author of five books, including: » The Producers: Profiles in Frustration » Yesterday’s News Tomorrow: Inside American Jewish Journalism
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