Noted Jewish Writer Headlines Holocaust Literature Conference Feb. 23

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Author and Israeli political activist David Grossman will headline a one-day conference on Holocaust literature that is free and open to the public on Friday, February 23, at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The conference, Reading Holocaust Literature: David Grossman and Contemporary Writing, will take place at Kresge College on the UCSC campus. Advance registration is required; please call (831) 459-1225 to register and for detailed schedule information.

"What is going to happen to Holocaust research, teaching, and healing when all the survivors are gone?" asked UCSC English professor Murray Baumgarten, co-holder of the Neufeld-Levin Holocaust Endowed Chair, describing the theme of the gathering. "We are fortunate to have David Grossman and other leading authors visit our campus to share their insights with us."

Grossman is the author of See Under: LOVE, a landmark Holocaust novel called "wickedly readable" and "one of the most disturbing novels I’ve ever read" by Edmund White in the New York Times Book Review. The novel, which will serve as the basis for the conference’s first panel discussion, tells the story of Momik, the only child of two Holocaust survivors, who experiences the world of pain and love despite his best efforts to avoid it.

Grossman and British writer Clive Sinclair, author of numerous books that include Bedbugs, Augustus Rex, and Cosmetic Effects, will participate in the morning panel discussion on contemporary Holocaust literature from 9:30 to 11 a.m. The afternoon discussion from 1:30 to 4 p.m. will focus on See Under: LOVE and will feature a panel of writers, scholars, and graduate students, including authors Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi of Hebrew University, John Felstiner of Stanford University, and Michael Thaler of UC San Francisco. Panelists include first-, second-, and third-generation Holocaust survivors.

Grossman, a third-generation survivor, is one of Israel’s most important contemporary writers. His new novel is The Zigzag Kid, although he is best known in the United States for his political commentary in the New York Times and for his nonfiction, including The Yellow Wind, which is based on his three-month stay on the West Bank in 1987–a book that remains one of the most popular and controversial books in Israel.

The UCSC conference, which is sponsored by the Neufeld-Levin Holocaust Endowed Chair and the Helen and Sanford Diller Family Endowment for Jewish Studies at UC Santa Cruz, coincides with the opening week of the San Francisco production of See Under: LOVE, an award-winning theatrical adaptation by A Traveling Jewish Theater. The play runs February 15-March 25 at ATJT’s Theatre at Project Artaud.