By Leyna Krow, Assistant Editor, JTNews
In the past five years, Nextbook has brought more than 80 Jewish authors, poets, critics, journalists and scholars to Seattle through its public programs series. Past guests have included authors Amy Bloom, Adam Gopnik, and Myla Goldberg, NPR commentator Susan Stamberg and humorist Steve Almond, just to name a few.
Last week, Nextbook program fellow Michele Yanow announced that the Seattle series will not return next season.
“I know this is going to come as a surprise to many of our patrons,” Yanow said, adding that Nextbook lectures were some of the city’s best-attended Jewish cultural events, drawing a wide cross-section of people from the local Jewish community. The majority of the events in the past year were held at the Henry Art Gallery and Town Hall, though over the years some took place in venues as diverse as the ballroom at Benaroya Hall and the Tractor Tavern.
According to Deborah Schuval, associate director of public programs at Nextbook’s New York headquarters, Seattle’s lecture series was founded as part of a pilot program designed to consistently bring Jewish authors and speakers of note to communities that might not otherwise have access to such events. The pilot program was only intended to run for five years under Nextbook’s supervision, at which time each branch would be responsible for finding local funding to continue on with the lecture series. Nextbook also runs an online magazine with an emphasis on contemporary Jewish literature, art and culture.
Nextbook’s other two original pilot lecture programs, based in Washington D.C. and Chicago, succeeded in securing funding from local sources. Seattle, however, did not. The Chicago series will become a part of the Institute of Jewish Studies, while the Washington D.C. series will be funded by the city’s Jewish Community Center.
Schuval said that she was disappointed that Nextbook had been unable to find a partner in Seattle.
“There was a lot interest, but we only wanted to form a partnership if the partnering organization would be able to carry out the program for at least three more years. No one in Seattle could make that commitment,” she said.
For Yanow, this information did not come as surprise.
“The reality is, this is a small community, relatively. There is a finite pie when it comes to funds for Jewish organizations,” she said.
According to Schuval, Nextbook will stay involved with the public programs in Washington D.C. and Chicago for the next few years as a consultant. Relinquishing control of the public programs does not mean that Nextbook is getting out of the business of hosting lectures entirely, however. Schuval said Nextbook intends to continue organizing author salons as well as literary festivals in various cities. Whether any of those events will come to Seattle, she did not say.
During the Seattle program’s five-year run, Yanow worked with Schuval and other program fellows to decide which writers she wanted to have visit Seattle. Yanow said she was consistently impressed by the caliber of speakers they were able to bring in.
Among her personal favorites, Yanow counts Stamberg, author David Rakoff, and renowned novelist Michael Chabon.
“He’s such a wonderful writer and just as delightful to meet,” Yanow said of Chabon. “He’s a mensch.”
There are a number of writers whom Yanow noted that she would have liked to have brought to Seattle if she had had another season, or if other circumstances had allowed.
Etgar Keret, Israeli author of The Nimrod Flip Out and The Girl on the Fridge, who co-wrote the script for the film Jellyfish, was high on her list, as was author Cynthia Ozick and poet and activist Grace Paley, who died in August 2007.
“Paley was already quite elderly when we started the public program, so we never held out hope of getting her,” Yanow said.
Yanow, formerly a co-owner of Tree of Life Books & Judaica, has been with Nextbook since the public program series began in 2003. She said she is currently in the process of looking for a new job, hopefully with one of Seattle’s other existing Jewish organizations.
“I’ve been working within the Jewish community for 12 years and I’ve gotten quite used to not working Shabbat or Jewish holidays,” she joked.
Although she enjoyed meeting the many writers and performers who came through Seattle thanks to Nextbook, Yanow said that the aspect of the public programs she enjoyed the most was getting to know so many Seattle-area Jews.
“This has been a lot of fun, not only because I got to meet authors, but also because I got to meet so many people in the community,” Yanow said. “I’m one of those people who thought they knew everyone already. But these events brought a lot of folks who are unaffiliated or who just don’t go to other Jewish events. It was so great to be reaching all these people.”