Debut novelists Anouk Markovits, Jennifer Miller, and Francesca Segal will take the stage on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. for a night of conversation at On-Stage with Debut Novelists, the second signature event of the 20th Annual Mandell JCC Jewish Book Festival, at the Mandell JCC, Zachs Campus, 335 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT. Julia Pistell, Director of Writing Programs at the Mark Twain House and Museum, will moderate the panel of three first-time authors.
Anouk Markovits is the author of I Am Forbidden, an emotionally-gripping story of what happens when unwavering love, unyielding law, and centuries of Jewish tradition collide. Markovits grew up in France, in an ultra-orthodox Jewish home. After she left home at 19 to avoid an arranged marriage, she attended Columbia University's School of General Studies. She holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard University and a PhD in Romance Studies from Cornell University.
Jennifer Miller holds a BA from Brown University, an MS in Journalism and an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University. She is the author of The Year of the Gadfly, an exhilarating novel about adolescence in the world of New England prep schools. In addition to writing this debut novel, Miller’s work has been published in The New York Times and Marie Claire.
Francesca Segal is the author of The Innocents, a novel set in the modern-day Jewish neighborhood of North West London, a community still under the shadow of the Holocaust and where the bonds of family and tradition run deep. Segal was born in London in 1980, the daughter of novelist Erich Segal. Brought up between the UK and America, she studied at Oxford and Harvard universities before becoming a journalist and literary critic. For three years she wrote the Debut Fiction Column in The Observer and was a features writer at Tatler.
The year-long festival includes two more Signature author events, One Book One Jewish Hartford, book club programs and Authors on the Road. Tickets to Jewish Book Festival Signature Series events are $20 per person. Tickets are on sale via mail, in person, fax, or online at the Mandell JCC Box Office, 860-231-6316, 860-233-0802 (fax), tickets@mandelljcc.org and at www.mandelljcc.org. Patron and sponsorship opportunities available.
For more information, Jill Ziplow, 860-231-6339, jziplow@mandelljcc.org. For updates, follow the Mandell JCC on Facebook and Twitter.
