Fiction and nonfiction, memoirs and poetry, all newly published by Jewish authors—it's a dream come true for reading aficionados every month at a lively new Hebrew College series of readings and literary discussion with talented area writers, cosponsored by the Center for Adult Jewish Learning and the Rae and Joseph Gann Library.

The monthly program, Fresh Ink! Evenings of New Jewish Writing, debuts at 7:30 p.m., Monday, September 22, with A Thorn in the Heart: New Jewish Fiction on Atonement and Forgiveness. Prize-winning authors Joan Leegant and Rachel Kadish will read from their short stories and discuss the High Holiday themes in their work. Leegant, whose newly released collection, An Hour in Paradise (W.W. Norton), was chosen by Barnes & Noble as a fall Discover Great New Writers selection, will read "How to Comfort the Sick and Dying," a story about an ex-drug-dealer-turned-yeshiva-student who must face his past while visiting a dying man. Rachel Kadish, author of From a Sealed Room and winner of numerous short fiction awards including the Pushcart Prize, will read "The Argument," a story of a man tormented by memory and the inability to forgive, from the new anthology, Lost Tribe: New Jewish Fiction from the Edge (HarperCollins). Dr. Judith Segal, Director of the Library, will moderate. Admission is free.

On October 27, the series continues with an evening devoted to the art of the Jewish memoir. Guest authors will include Anne Bernays, Justin Kaplan, Marcie Hershman and Daniel Asa Rose. Celebrated writer Grace Paley headlines the November 19 program, interviewing Jay Cantor, author of Great Neck, a novel about growing up in Great Neck, Long Island. The November program is additionally sponsored by the National Yiddish Book Center and the American Jewish Historical Society.

Enhancing the series, the Fresh Ink! Book Club will meet the Wednesday evening prior to each program for a dynamic discourse on the upcoming selections, facilitated by Library Director Judith Segal. A benefit of Gann Library membership, the new book club is now in formation and will hold its first meeting to discuss selections for guest authors' Jewish memoirs on October 15, 6:30 p.m., in the Gann Library.

For details about joining the Fresh Ink! Book Club, fall programs and other evenings in the Fresh Ink! series, please visit hebrewcollege.edu/freshink.

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