LECTURES

Israel’s most celebrated novelist, Meir Shalev was born in 1948 in Nahalal, Israel’s first moshav. His books include A Pigeon and a Boy, winner of the 2008 National Jewish Book Award, and Russian Romance (The Blue Mountain), one of the top five bestsellers in Israeli publishing history. His numerous awards include the Brenner Prize, the Juliet Club Prize and the Chiavari Prize.

His nonfiction book of essays, Beginnings: Reflections on the Bible's Intriguing Firsts, will be published by Doubleday in 2011. In this secular work, Shalev shadows the heroes and heroines of the Old Testament, directing our attention to the first kiss, the first laugh, the first love, the first hate, the first dream, the first spy, and more.

The Distinguished Writers Series
The series reminds the world that reading, writing, conversation and laughter are related arts. The format is simple, the emotional reward complex. The writers read, have a conversation with the series curator, then engage in an open dialogue with the audience.

“The rigors of creativity are best appreciated at close range in small rooms where ideas swerve and loop and float with the kind of inventiveness and assurance that makes the mind swirl …” -Colin Channer, Series Curator