Arguing with the Storm: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers (Jewish Women Writers) - Softcover

Rhea Tregebov was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada and raised in Winnipeg, where she received her undergraduate education. She did her graduate work in literature at Cornell and Boston Universities, receiving her M.A. from BU in 1978. Tregebov is the author of six critically acclaimed books of poetry, including (alive): New and Selected Poems. She has also published five popular children's picture books. In addition to Arguing with the Storm, she is the editor of a number of anthologies of essays, poetry and fiction, including Gifts: Poems for Parents. Her work has received a number of literary prizes, including the Pat Lowther Award, Prairie Schooner Readers' Choice Award, and the Malahat Review Long Poem Award for her poetry.

"These brave women of a century and more ago left us thinly disguised stories and actual memoir of the cruel times in which they lived. The result is . . . immensely readable." Maxine Kumin, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet

"Each story shines. Relations with parents, siblings, lovers, the environs, the society, are all explored." Jewish Book World

"What makes these [stories] so surprising . . . is not their foreignness but the emotional depths that resonate so profoundly . . . each [story] presents a kind of homespun clarity, a sophistication that comes not from cosmopolitanism but from the ability to accept a flawed but vitally alive world . . . these stories are charming and remarkably compelling. . . . The authors were unafraid to shine their lanterns into the dark corners of their own world, and the result is heartrending. This valuable collection is worth reading for its literary merit alone. But with so much of the vast Yiddish culture already lost to us, these stories are also valuable for their sociological insights into Jewish life of a not-so-distant era." Lilith magazine

"From the tale of a grandmother who finds work in a munitions factory, to a memoir of the Dvinsk ghetto, to a love-story in a suburban old-age home, these affecting stories offer sometimes searing, sometimes touching glimpses into a swiftly disappearing mental landscape . . . and the lost world from which it comes." Jacqueline Osherow, poet

"This collection not only adds to the body of work of writers already in translation . . . but also further expands the Yiddish canon with translation of four artists never before read in English. . . . What they all reflect collectively is women artists' passionate engagement with their Jewish communities and history. The stories and memoir depict revolution, gender and class conflict, acculturation . . . and Holocaust and post-Holocaust experiences." Irena Klepfisz, author of A Few Words in the Mother Tongue

Since the 1980s there has been a concerted worldwide effort to revive the Yiddish language and its vast literary legacy. This Winnipeg inspired anthology is certain to add to that renaissance.” Winnipeg Free Press

Arguing with the Storm is clearly a labour of love, a grassroots literary undertaking with broad literary appeal.” The Canadian Jewish News

"These brave women of a century and more ago left us thinly disguised stories and actual memoir of the cruel times in which they lived. The result is . . . immensely readable." ―Maxine Kumin, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet

"Each story shines. Relations with parents, siblings, lovers, the environs, the society, are all explored." ―Jewish Book World

"What makes these [stories] so surprising . . . is not their foreignness but the emotional depths that resonate so profoundly . . . each [story] presents a kind of homespun clarity, a sophistication that comes not from cosmopolitanism but from the ability to accept a flawed but vitally alive world . . . these stories are charming and remarkably compelling. . . . The authors were unafraid to shine their lanterns into the dark corners of their own world, and the result is heartrending. This valuable collection is worth reading for its literary merit alone. But with so much of the vast Yiddish culture already lost to us, these stories are also valuable for their sociological insights into Jewish life of a not-so-distant era." ―Lilith magazine

"From the tale of a grandmother who finds work in a munitions factory, to a memoir of the Dvinsk ghetto, to a love-story in a suburban old-age home, these affecting stories offer sometimes searing, sometimes touching glimpses into a swiftly disappearing mental landscape . . . and the lost world from which it comes." ―Jacqueline Osherow, poet

"This collection not only adds to the body of work of writers already in translation . . . but also further expands the Yiddish canon with translation of four artists never before read in English. . . . What they all reflect collectively is women artists' passionate engagement with their Jewish communities and history. The stories and memoir depict revolution, gender and class conflict, acculturation . . . and Holocaust and post-Holocaust experiences." ―Irena Klepfisz, author of A Few Words in the Mother Tongue

“Since the 1980s there has been a concerted worldwide effort to revive the Yiddish language and its vast literary legacy. This Winnipeg inspired anthology is certain to add to that renaissance.” ―Winnipeg Free Press

“Arguing with the Storm is clearly a labour of love, a grassroots literary undertaking with broad literary appeal.”―The Canadian Jewish News