authors

In this April 5, 1994 file photo, Toni Morrison holds an orchid at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

August 6, 2019, 9:13 pm

Nobel laureate novelist Toni Morrison dead at 88

Author’s rapid rise to become a reigning giant of modern American literature was achieved through command of language and tales of the private lives of the unknown and unwanted

By Hillel Italie

Benjamin Dreyer at Hatchards, London’s oldest bookshop, promoting the UK version of his book, 'Dreyer’s English.' (Isabelle Ralphs/ Cornerstone Publishing/ Penguin Random House UK)

July 26, 2019, 9:04 pm

From US to UK, veteran editor Benjamin Dreyer has the last word on English style

The Random House copy chief and self-described ‘nice Jewish boy’ isn’t shy when it comes to proper use of grammar and punctuation — as his new, and humorous, book can attest

By Jenni Frazer

British author P.G. Wodehouse, left, is reunited with his wife Ethel after being released from internment in Berlin, August 13, 1941. The couple are chatting with a Foreign Office representative on the terrace of a German hotel, according to the Nazi censor-approved caption. (AP Photo)

July 19, 2019, 12:00 pm

Activists ask Westminster Abbey not to honor ‘odious anti-Semite’ P.G. Wodehouse

Plans for memorial stone in central London royal church under fire over author’s anti-Semitism and five controversial wartime broadcasts which aided the Nazi regime

By Robert Philpot

Lucette Lagnado, then 6, and her family pose for a family portrait on the eve of their exodus from Egypt in the 1960s (Lucettelagnado.com)

July 12, 2019, 5:23 am

Lucette Lagnado, who chronicled family’s flight from Egypt, dies at 63

No cause of death given for Wall Street Journal reporter, who won major Jewish book award in 2007 for ‘The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit,’ about end of Jewish life in Cairo

By Andrew Silow-Carroll

Writer Linda Grant poses for photographers prior to the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2008 Shortlist party in central London, Tuesday Sept. 9, 2008. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

June 23, 2019, 6:45 am

Three years after referendum, UK Jewish writer’s new book tackles Brexit chaos

Award-winning author Linda Grant tries to make sense of a country split by anger and betrayal, writing along the way a worst-case scenario that is disturbingly true to life

By Robert Philpot

The cover of 'The Book of Jeremiah,' Julie Zuckerman's debut novel about the life of an American Jewish man (Courtesy Press 53)

June 10, 2019, 4:54 pm

A novel about an older man, told in short stories by a woman

Julie Zuckerman’s ‘The Book of Jeremiah’ sets out the life of the fictional Jeremiah Gerstler, a character both familiar and new

By Jessica Steinberg

This photo taken April 10, 2009 shows Gourmet magazine editor Ruth Reichl being interviewed in her office in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

June 9, 2019, 2:21 am

Even as Gourmet magazine folded, the woman in charge made a recipe for success

While at the helm of a publication that was an American culinary institution, Ruth Reichl made some controversial decisions — but everyone agrees her new cookbooks are delectable

By Rich Tenorio

May 26, 2019, 1:47 pm

Naomi Wolf critiqued for apparent misunderstanding at heart of her new book

Historians say author misinterpreted law and thus made false assessment that dozens of men were executed in Victorian England for sodomy; publisher ‘discussing corrections’

By Sue Surkes

Ayobami Abedayo, the Nigerian writer of the award-winning 'Stay With Me,' was in Israel in May 2019 for the International Writers Festival (Courtesy Penguin RandomHouse)

May 25, 2019, 9:03 am

Ayobami Abedayo’s novel tackles couplehood, infertility and Nigeria

The author, visiting Jerusalem for the International Writers Festival, says she’s glad she spent her formative years in the West African country

By Jessica Steinberg

In this file photo from June 12, 2018, German-born British author and illustrator Judith Kerr, poses for a photograph at her home in west London on June 12, 2018. (Tolga Akmen/AFP)

May 23, 2019, 3:41 pm

Jewish children’s book author Judith Kerr dies at 95

British writer, best known for ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea,’ fled Nazi Germany with her family at age 10, was awarded OBE for services to children’s literature, Holocaust education

By AFP

Benjamin Markovits, author of 'A Weekend in New York.' (Courtesy)

March 12, 2019, 7:07 pm

In his 8th book, Benjamin Markovits writes what he knows: Jewish and complicated

Before speaking at London’s Jewish Book Week, the author opens up to ToI about how his newest novel, ‘A Weekend in New York,’ is informed by his mixed-faith upbringing

By Anne Joseph

(Collage by Alma; photo of T Kira Madden Madden courtesy of Madden/via JTA)

March 11, 2019, 3:24 am

Memoir takes on complex heritage of queer, Jewish, Chinese and Hawaiian author

T Kira Madden’s ‘Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls’ weaves a story of addiction, Florida, fatherless girls — and how Drew Barrymore saved her life

By Emily Burack

Karen Ievers looks at the Victorian-era photographs of Jane Austen's relatives in the album she bought on eBay. Jerusalem, January 24, 2019. (Renee Ghert-Zand/TOI)

January 28, 2019, 2:35 pm

Jerusalem woman’s Victorian photo album is surprise historical Jane Austen find

After an impulse eBay purchase, a new owner realizes she has acquired a treasure trove documenting the lives of the venerated author’s relatives in Ireland and England

By Renee Ghert-Zand

Acclaimed American author Joyce Carol Oates will be the recipient of the 2019 Jerusalem Prize, to be awarded at the May 2019 Jerusalem International Book Forum (Courtesy Dustin Cohen)

January 23, 2019, 1:11 am

Acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates to receive 2019 Jerusalem Prize

Award will be presented to the writer at May’s 2019 Jerusalem International Book Forum

By Jessica Steinberg

David Shrayer-Petrov outside of the Brookline Booksmith store in November, where he and the translators of 'Doctor Levitin' spoke to a crowd. (Courtesy of Maxim Shrayer/via JTA)

December 19, 2018, 10:36 pm

Refusenik, 82, sees first English translation of his tragic 1979 novel

‘Doctor Levitin,’ the first literary work to deal with the experiences of the dissident Jews, written by renowned writer David Shrayer-Petrov, who escaped the Soviet Union in 1987

By Penny Schwartz