Why We Write

Rachel Kadish is the acclaimed author of The Weight of Ink, winner of the 2017 National Jewish Book Award, as well as the novels From a Sealed Room and Tolstoy Lied: a Love Story. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, Tin House, the New England Review and Salon. In this episode, Kadish, a faculty member in the Lesley University MFA in Creative Writing program, talks about her most recent novel — the interwoven tale of two women of remarkable intellect: Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi, just before the plague hits the city; and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history. Ultimately, Kadish questions whose stories get told and what stories are forgotten. Lesley University faculty member Caroline Heller, author of Reading Claudius, conducts the interview. Read more on our podcast page.