What do you think?
Rate this book
Frankly Feminist: Short Stories by Jewish Women from Lilith Magazine
A groundbreaking Jewish feminist short story collection.
Short story collections focusing on Jewish writers have—no surprise—typically given women authors short shrift. This new volume represents the best Jewish feminist fiction published in Lilith magazine, and does what no other collection has done before in its geographic scope, its inclusion of twenty-first-century stories, and its Jewish feminist focus.
This collection showcases a wide range of stories offering variegated cultures and contexts and points of Persian Jews; a Biblical matriarch; an Ethiopian mother in modern Israel; suburban American teens; Eastern European academics; a sexual questioner; a Jew by choice; a new immigrant escaping her Lower East Side sweatshop; a Black Jewish marcher for justice; in Vichy France, a toddler’s mother hiding out; and more.
Organized by theme, the stories in this book emphasize a breadth of content, and our hope is that in reading you’ll appreciate the liveliness of the burgeoning self-awareness brought to life in each tale, and the occasional funny, call-your-friend-and-tell-her-about-it moment. Skip around, encounter an author whose other work you may know, be enticed by a title, or an opening line. We hope you’ll find both pleasure and enlightenment—and sometimes revelation—within these pages.
Short story collections focusing on Jewish writers have—no surprise—typically given women authors short shrift. This new volume represents the best Jewish feminist fiction published in Lilith magazine, and does what no other collection has done before in its geographic scope, its inclusion of twenty-first-century stories, and its Jewish feminist focus.
This collection showcases a wide range of stories offering variegated cultures and contexts and points of Persian Jews; a Biblical matriarch; an Ethiopian mother in modern Israel; suburban American teens; Eastern European academics; a sexual questioner; a Jew by choice; a new immigrant escaping her Lower East Side sweatshop; a Black Jewish marcher for justice; in Vichy France, a toddler’s mother hiding out; and more.
Organized by theme, the stories in this book emphasize a breadth of content, and our hope is that in reading you’ll appreciate the liveliness of the burgeoning self-awareness brought to life in each tale, and the occasional funny, call-your-friend-and-tell-her-about-it moment. Skip around, encounter an author whose other work you may know, be enticed by a title, or an opening line. We hope you’ll find both pleasure and enlightenment—and sometimes revelation—within these pages.
327 pages, Paperback
Published October 6, 2022
10 people are currently reading
144 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 2, 2022
In a Nutshell: A varied and thought-provoking story collection with Jewish women as the central characters. The stories are from Lilith Magazine, published over the last four-odd decades. Worth a read.
“The official canon of Western literature had dismissed, overlooked, or simply ignored the existence of genius outside the narrow rubric of Western civilization: male, white, and European.”
When I read this in the foreword of this collection, I knew I had gotten my hands on something intelligent and candid. Indeed, the forty-four stories that are a part of this collection are brutally truthful in various ways. With each story having a Jewish woman protagonist, the tales focus on the various issues a Jewish woman might face and how she deals with it.
Where the anthology worked for me:
✔ The collection is organised by theme. While this didn’t offer me much advantage while reading the ARC, I would have certainly appreciated this factor more as a general reader. It becomes easier to pick stories up by mood. The themes aren’t typical but quite stimulating. For instance, the first theme—‘Transitions’—focusses on women instigating a change in their destiny. ‘Transgressions’ has stories connected to rebels, whether in major matters or in minor. ‘Intimacies’ might make you think of romance but the set deals with an astounding range of intimacies. My least favourite section was ‘War’, possibly because I read too much of historical fiction and hence all the stories seemed familiar. Luckily, there were only four stories with this theme.
✔ I loved the intelligence and unpredictability of most of the stories. The vocabulary level is a delight, and the range of Jewish stories contained (both in terms of countries and years) is impressive.
✔ While the focus is primarily on the Jewish experience, at least 80% of the stories deal with women’s experiences in general. I was a bit apprehensive at first about picking this up since I am not much aware of Jewish customs and beliefs. But in most of the stories, my lack of knowledge wasn’t a hurdle.
✔ The ‘feminism’ promised by the title isn’t as brash as I would have expected. We know that feminism comes in various shades, and this is exactly how it is depicted in the book. All the women protagonists are strong characters, but not necessarily so in a rebellious way. I loved the multifarious aspects of feminism depicted by the stories.
Where the anthology could have worked better for me:
⚠ Quite a few of the stories have Yiddish words, but most didn’t hamper my understanding. At the same time, a glossary would have been helpful.
⚠ The author bios and the year in which the story was first published are mentioned in a separate section at the end of the book. I would have preferred the contributor bios to be included at the end of their specific story, especially as the 44 stories have been selected from over two hundred that Lilith magazine has published over 45 years. Having an idea of when the story was first published would have given a better understanding of the trouble faced by the protagonist then.
⚠ I don’t prefer anthologies with more than 20 stories as they get saturating after a while, and even makes progress a bit slow-going. This is a personal preference and not a shortcoming of the book per se.
As always, I gave the stories individual ratings, and most of them reached/crossed the 3 star mark. Mentioning all these would be too extensive a list, so here are my top favourites with 4.5-5 stars each.
All in all, the quality of the stories and the writing makes this a collection to be savoured over a period of time than to be gulped in a go. Definitely recommended to short fiction lovers, regardless of gender or culture.
3.7 stars, based on the average of my ratings for each story.
My thanks to Ms. Olivia McCoy for a complimentary copy of “Frankly Feminist: Short Stories by Jewish Women from Lilith Magazine”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
———————————————
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Facebook | Twitter
“The official canon of Western literature had dismissed, overlooked, or simply ignored the existence of genius outside the narrow rubric of Western civilization: male, white, and European.”
When I read this in the foreword of this collection, I knew I had gotten my hands on something intelligent and candid. Indeed, the forty-four stories that are a part of this collection are brutally truthful in various ways. With each story having a Jewish woman protagonist, the tales focus on the various issues a Jewish woman might face and how she deals with it.
Where the anthology worked for me:
✔ The collection is organised by theme. While this didn’t offer me much advantage while reading the ARC, I would have certainly appreciated this factor more as a general reader. It becomes easier to pick stories up by mood. The themes aren’t typical but quite stimulating. For instance, the first theme—‘Transitions’—focusses on women instigating a change in their destiny. ‘Transgressions’ has stories connected to rebels, whether in major matters or in minor. ‘Intimacies’ might make you think of romance but the set deals with an astounding range of intimacies. My least favourite section was ‘War’, possibly because I read too much of historical fiction and hence all the stories seemed familiar. Luckily, there were only four stories with this theme.
✔ I loved the intelligence and unpredictability of most of the stories. The vocabulary level is a delight, and the range of Jewish stories contained (both in terms of countries and years) is impressive.
✔ While the focus is primarily on the Jewish experience, at least 80% of the stories deal with women’s experiences in general. I was a bit apprehensive at first about picking this up since I am not much aware of Jewish customs and beliefs. But in most of the stories, my lack of knowledge wasn’t a hurdle.
✔ The ‘feminism’ promised by the title isn’t as brash as I would have expected. We know that feminism comes in various shades, and this is exactly how it is depicted in the book. All the women protagonists are strong characters, but not necessarily so in a rebellious way. I loved the multifarious aspects of feminism depicted by the stories.
Where the anthology could have worked better for me:
⚠ Quite a few of the stories have Yiddish words, but most didn’t hamper my understanding. At the same time, a glossary would have been helpful.
⚠ The author bios and the year in which the story was first published are mentioned in a separate section at the end of the book. I would have preferred the contributor bios to be included at the end of their specific story, especially as the 44 stories have been selected from over two hundred that Lilith magazine has published over 45 years. Having an idea of when the story was first published would have given a better understanding of the trouble faced by the protagonist then.
⚠ I don’t prefer anthologies with more than 20 stories as they get saturating after a while, and even makes progress a bit slow-going. This is a personal preference and not a shortcoming of the book per se.
As always, I gave the stories individual ratings, and most of them reached/crossed the 3 star mark. Mentioning all these would be too extensive a list, so here are my top favourites with 4.5-5 stars each.
⭐ The New World - Esther Singer Kreitman: The very first story of the book, and it left me speechless!
⭐ A Wedding in Persia - Gina Barkhordar Nahai: One of the few truly happy stories of the book.
⭐ News to Turn the World - Katie Singer: The emotions in this one, wow!
⭐ My Daughter's Boyfriends - Penny Jackson: Loved the progressions and the ending.
(All the above are stories from the ‘Transitions’ section: it was my favourite section of the entire book, with each tale being impactful.)
⭐ The Wedding Photographer's Assistant - Ilana Stanger-Ross: Absolutely did not go in the direction I thought it would.
⭐ Probabilities - Elizabeth Edelglass: Enjoyed the relationship conundrum in this one.
⭐ Lot's Wife - Michal Lemberger: A twist on the Biblical tale. Lot’s wife gets her due in this tale!
⭐ Zhid - Yona Zeldis McDonough: Quite extensive and layered for a short work.
⭐ Ironing - Sarah Seltzer: Ah, the problems of teenage life and first crushes. Not a sweet story though!
⭐ Flight - Phyllis Carol Agins: Poignant!
All in all, the quality of the stories and the writing makes this a collection to be savoured over a period of time than to be gulped in a go. Definitely recommended to short fiction lovers, regardless of gender or culture.
3.7 stars, based on the average of my ratings for each story.
My thanks to Ms. Olivia McCoy for a complimentary copy of “Frankly Feminist: Short Stories by Jewish Women from Lilith Magazine”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
———————————————
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Facebook | Twitter
August 15, 2022
Frankly Feminist is a beautiful collection of around 40 short stories, all written by Jewish women, brought to us by Lilith Magazine. The stories are split into themes, such as transitions, probabilities, war, and others. The collection contains such a wide variety of stories and styles, and was an absolute pleasure to read.
Given the consistent quality of the writing, it is very hard to pick a few favorites, but here are some highlights:
Opening story, The New World, by Esther Singer Kreitman, is absolutely hilarious. A newborn enters the world, and is quickly disappointed. My Daughter’s Boyfriend, by Penny Jackson, is engrossing and heartbreaking.
The Curiosa Section by Harriet Goldman, and Glass by Diana Spechler, both highlight how women can be trapped by social expectations in various ways.
The Wedding Photographer’s Assistant by Ilana Stanger-Ross captures a frantic moment of tragedy amid a celebration.
Paved with Gold by Beth Kanter contains a beautiful, strangely triumphant twist. Driving Lesson by Kate Schmier reminded me of Flannery O’Connor, which is basically the highest praise I can give.
Zhid by Yona Zeldis McDonough, and La Poussette by Rachel Hall are especially beautiful, and both address wealth, and how it absolutely cannot buy happiness.
I could go on and on, but I highly recommend Frankly Feminist. It’s such an important collection. It says so much about being Jewish, being a woman, being a mother, being human, in so many important, vibrant voices.
November 12, 2022
TITLE: Frankly Feminist: Short Stories by Jewish Women from Lilith Magazine
EDITORS: Susan Weidman Schneider and Yona Zelda’s McDonough
PUB DATE: 10.06.2022
Who is ready to read some groundbreaking Jewish feminist short story collection?
When this book came in the mail, I was so excited to read and enjoy this collection.
What I loved.
🙌 The collection is organized by theme - as a mood reader I especially enjoyed this the most since I don’t have to read this chronologically but instead find something that pleased me and catches my eye that moment.
💙 The editors did a superb job in curating an immense selection of Jewish stories from the biblical times to contemporary, and with a range of point of views - a Black Jew fighting for justice, an immigrant in a sweatshop in NYC, an Ethiopian mother in Israel, teens in suburban America, and many more.
🌎 The diversity of the 44 stories written by Jewish women are captivating, poignant, and powerful. I know that I will be reaching for this collection time and time again to reread and enjoy.
EDITORS: Susan Weidman Schneider and Yona Zelda’s McDonough
PUB DATE: 10.06.2022
Who is ready to read some groundbreaking Jewish feminist short story collection?
When this book came in the mail, I was so excited to read and enjoy this collection.
What I loved.
🙌 The collection is organized by theme - as a mood reader I especially enjoyed this the most since I don’t have to read this chronologically but instead find something that pleased me and catches my eye that moment.
💙 The editors did a superb job in curating an immense selection of Jewish stories from the biblical times to contemporary, and with a range of point of views - a Black Jew fighting for justice, an immigrant in a sweatshop in NYC, an Ethiopian mother in Israel, teens in suburban America, and many more.
🌎 The diversity of the 44 stories written by Jewish women are captivating, poignant, and powerful. I know that I will be reaching for this collection time and time again to reread and enjoy.
March 11, 2023
Frankly Feminist is a short story collection featuring 44 Jewish writers. Each story was chosen from those published over 45 years of Lilith Magazine. Editors Susan Weidman Schneider and Yona Zeldis McDonough put together the collection in a thoughtful way, grouping them by themes, such as "Transitions" and "Body and Soul."
As some stories date back to the '70s and others are more current, there is quite a variety of situations that the fictional characters in the short stories experience. While diverse, each author shares a feminist perspective on Jewish history, culture, religious practices, identity, and more.
As with so many great works of fiction, the underlying themes of the stories in Frankly Feminist speak to real-life experiences. They highlight important themes, including abortion, poverty, illness, and sexuality. Reading about themes I've thought about so much over the years through the lens of each Jewish writer, I realized I have a lot more to learn.
Several of these stories made me cry. My heart ached as I thought of the experiences.
There is great benefit from knowing more about one another through powerful storytelling that, at its heart, is a sharing of experiences that reflect reality. With that in mind, I recommend Frankly Feminist.
I was gifted this book in return for an honest review.
As some stories date back to the '70s and others are more current, there is quite a variety of situations that the fictional characters in the short stories experience. While diverse, each author shares a feminist perspective on Jewish history, culture, religious practices, identity, and more.
As with so many great works of fiction, the underlying themes of the stories in Frankly Feminist speak to real-life experiences. They highlight important themes, including abortion, poverty, illness, and sexuality. Reading about themes I've thought about so much over the years through the lens of each Jewish writer, I realized I have a lot more to learn.
Several of these stories made me cry. My heart ached as I thought of the experiences.
There is great benefit from knowing more about one another through powerful storytelling that, at its heart, is a sharing of experiences that reflect reality. With that in mind, I recommend Frankly Feminist.
I was gifted this book in return for an honest review.
September 15, 2022
I read this through NetGalley. It’s not my usual type of book, I mostly read it to try and diversify what I read, both in terms of world view and taking a step away from my usual romance and fantasy books. I found a lot of the story’s really funny and interesting, and they are all varied in the style of writing. I don’t share many of the experience that are written about, growing up atheist and in a different country from my family, I loved reading about all of the stories from a very different perspective than mine.
Read
May 29, 2023Best part of reading this book was reading (or, in a number of cases, re-reading) the work of so many talented friends!
November 27, 2022
I loved this collection; it contains a great diversity of women and sweeps a broad stroke across time and history. Divided into six themes, you can pick from any of the 44 stories and experience a unique woman’s perspective.
Thank you @suzyapprovedbooktours and @lilithmagazine for a spot on tour and a gifted ebook.
Thank you @suzyapprovedbooktours and @lilithmagazine for a spot on tour and a gifted ebook.
November 8, 2022
This is a short story collection of 44 stories divided into 6 themes and all written by Jewish women which were published over a 45 year time span in Lilith Magazine.
With a timeframe of Lilith’e magazines 45 years in circulation, the stories really are not only a tribute to a wonderful group of women writers, but also a time capsule as stories includes settings ranging from Biblical times through present day.
Each of the 6 themes are fully explained over the course of the book which I really appreciated and helped me understand how each story related to its chosen theme.
Over the course of reading these stories, I have not only enjoyed the variety of voices and topics that are in this volume, but I have learned so much from each writer through their words.
I liked that I was able to pick a story title from the table of contents and start reading without having to go in any special order.
With 44 unique stories, there is no way I can pick a favorite or even a top 5. I will say that as I chose a story based on how I was feeling at that moment in time and how the title hit me on a particular day, I felt like I was meant to read each story on that chosen day.
This would make a great gift and really interesting group discussion.
With a timeframe of Lilith’e magazines 45 years in circulation, the stories really are not only a tribute to a wonderful group of women writers, but also a time capsule as stories includes settings ranging from Biblical times through present day.
Each of the 6 themes are fully explained over the course of the book which I really appreciated and helped me understand how each story related to its chosen theme.
Over the course of reading these stories, I have not only enjoyed the variety of voices and topics that are in this volume, but I have learned so much from each writer through their words.
I liked that I was able to pick a story title from the table of contents and start reading without having to go in any special order.
With 44 unique stories, there is no way I can pick a favorite or even a top 5. I will say that as I chose a story based on how I was feeling at that moment in time and how the title hit me on a particular day, I felt like I was meant to read each story on that chosen day.
This would make a great gift and really interesting group discussion.
November 8, 2022
This is a short story collection from Lilith magazine. The stories are themed and range in different time periods with a Jewish feminist focus. I liked the diversity, the love, humor and how each captured life's moments and observations. I love short stories by women and this doesn't disappoint. A beautiful collection of stories from gifted Jewish women writers. I enjoyed this immensely.
Dawnny Ruby
Novels N Latte
Hudson Valley NY
October 13, 2022
** Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this gem before it came out**
An amazing short story collection !
Refreshing, with it's various point of views !
The combination of Judaism and feminism in a twenty-first century perspective makes this book an absolute must-read !
An amazing short story collection !
Refreshing, with it's various point of views !
The combination of Judaism and feminism in a twenty-first century perspective makes this book an absolute must-read !
November 9, 2022
Susan Weidman Schneider and Yona Zeldis McDonough have edited a unique treasure of stories written by Jewish Women in “Frankly Feminist” and “Short Stories by Jewish Women from Lilith Magazine” This is an intriguing and captivating selection of stories from the twenty-first century. Many Jewish traditions from around the world are mentioned.
This is a well-organized and thought-out presentation with topics from known and new authors. I love this idea of having short stories when you feel like reading one, and I think this is one way of being introduced to many authors and getting a taste of their style and point of view. There are different emotions and different themes.
In “Unveiling” by Rachelle Rosett, Iris thinks it is one year since her husband has passed away, and Melora mentions that at the unveiling, perhaps Iris will meet someone. Melora presents her with a gift to have her hair done, get waxed, and be prepared. On the other hand, Iris is still mourning her husband and has many emotions. This is so thought-provoking and heartfelt. Also, this is just one story.
I enjoyed so many of the stories and highly recommend this book. It would be an excellent holiday gift!
This is a well-organized and thought-out presentation with topics from known and new authors. I love this idea of having short stories when you feel like reading one, and I think this is one way of being introduced to many authors and getting a taste of their style and point of view. There are different emotions and different themes.
In “Unveiling” by Rachelle Rosett, Iris thinks it is one year since her husband has passed away, and Melora mentions that at the unveiling, perhaps Iris will meet someone. Melora presents her with a gift to have her hair done, get waxed, and be prepared. On the other hand, Iris is still mourning her husband and has many emotions. This is so thought-provoking and heartfelt. Also, this is just one story.
I enjoyed so many of the stories and highly recommend this book. It would be an excellent holiday gift!
November 15, 2022
What a beautiful collection of short stories! I wasn't sure what to expect going into this book but that's the best part about short stories, the book is always changing. Frankly Feminist has taken many stories that were published in Lilith magazine and complied them into one place for the reader to enjoy. No two stories are alike but what they do share is a sense of strength and power that flies right off the page. People may think shoot stories are easy to write but I just read an article that they are in fact harder than writing novels.
I highly recommend this book to share with your girlfriends or anyone who would love to digest one story at a time.
I highly recommend this book to share with your girlfriends or anyone who would love to digest one story at a time.
November 8, 2022
What a beautiful collection of short stories! The collection includes 44 stories (divided into six themes) which were published over a 45 year time span in Lilith Magazine. They were thought provoking and tugged at my heartstrings in different ways. The New World (translated from Yiddish) was delightful. Sylvia’s Spoon and Deep in the Valley were especially powerful for me. There are stories that will resonate with everyone in this collection and I highly recommend it for yourself and/or as a gift.
November 17, 2022
𝘗𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭, 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦!
What an extraordinary book, I loved that the stories were organized by theme, so you don’t have to read them in any particular order. Poignant, thought-provoking and beautifully written, this collection of stories was a wonderful experience to read.
Thank you Suzy Approved Book Tours for this tour invite.
𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝗙𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁: 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝗝𝗲𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 by Lilith Magazine released November 6, 2022.
https://www.instagram.com/booksandcof...
What an extraordinary book, I loved that the stories were organized by theme, so you don’t have to read them in any particular order. Poignant, thought-provoking and beautifully written, this collection of stories was a wonderful experience to read.
Thank you Suzy Approved Book Tours for this tour invite.
𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝗙𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁: 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝗝𝗲𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 by Lilith Magazine released November 6, 2022.
https://www.instagram.com/booksandcof...
December 27, 2022
It was ok. I thought the essays would be longer. I didn’t read all of them.
March 27, 2023
4.5 Stars. Frankly Feminist is full of short stories by and about Jewish women. They are divided into sections including Transitions, Transgressions, Body and Soul, War, etc. They feature Jewish women from many cultures and points of view, from the Biblical Lot’s wife to a Black Jewish woman marcher in present times. Many of the stories were historical but I would categorize them overall as literary. I loved the ones that started off the collection and the ones that had twist endings. Many deal with losses and contain difficult topics. This was a lovely collection that I was happy I had a chance to read!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews