Yid Lit: Ben Greenman
Ben Greenman is an author and an editor at The New Yorker magazine who is worried about the state of written communication — now that the lightening speed of email has replaced the patience and thoughtfulness required to send someone you care about a hand-written note.
The stories in Greenman’s new collection, “What He’s Poised To Do” (Harper Perennial) span time and space, but letters link them together: a young mother writes of love and sibling rivalry in 1960s Nebraska, a real estate broker recounts an affair that began in a Chicago apartment he tried to sell, and a son adjusts to his family’s new life in a colony on the moon.
Greenman recently visited the Forward studio to discuss the rich Jewish history of letter-writing and the future of the medium — now that we’re more likely to click on a mailbox than to walk to one.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
