Joseph Skibell discusses "A Curable Romantic": the Jewish experience, Freud, Esperanto

An Interview With Novelist Joseph Skibell by Benyamin Cohen, The Huffington Post, October 19, 2010.

Skibell discusses religion, the Jewish experience, and the writing of his third novel.

I really loved writing it, but in terms of complexity it was beyond anything I'd done before. It's like a bar bet: write a novel about Sigmund Freud, Esperanto, and the Warsaw Ghetto — oh, and throw a dybbuk into it. But the love story ties everything together.

There is also a link to this video:



Note that the video shows pictures relating to Zamenhof and Esperanto and that the author claims expertise on the early Esperanto movement. (Rimarku ke la video montras bildojn pri Zamenhof & Esperanto kaj ke la autoro iomete diskutas la fruan Esperanto-movadon.)

In more recent developments, Skibell was shortlisted for an award:

Laughing in the Face of Evil (On the Shortlist for the Sami Rohr Prize, Joseph Skibell Uses Writing and Farce in the Face of the Holocaust), by Laura Hodes, The Jewish Daily Forward, published May 18, 2011, issue of June 3, 2011.

The Jewish Book Council posted this notice on 22 March 2011:

2011 Sami Rohr Prize Winner Announced in Fiction

The Jewish Book Council is also pleased to announce Joseph Skibell, author of A Curable Romantic (Algonquin Books), is the 2011 runner-up and recipient of the $25,000 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature Choice Award.

And see:

Fiction Writers Facing a Pot of Gold: The Forward's Overview of Sami Rohr Prizewinners for Fiction 2011, by Dan Friedman, May 20, 2011.

You can also look up Joseph Skibell on Facebook.

Washingtonians, note that the author will appear here in June:

Steve Stern & Joseph Skibell: In Conversation
Wed, June 15, 2011, 7:00 pm
Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, Washington, D.C.