CO-FOUNDER & SENIOR EDITOR
Dr. Dena Mandel
Biography
Dr. Dena Mandel originally a Jersey Girl, migrated to six other states and three foreign countries. Dena completed two master’s degrees at the University of Toronto and York University and holds an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. specializing in Literature of the Holocaust, Jewish American Writers, and Women’s Literature. She has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, SUNY-Albany, Le Moyne College, University of Western Ontario, Hamilton College, University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Syracuse University; and most recently in the Comparative and Modern Literatures & Languages department at Texas Tech University. Her publications and doctoral dissertation explored the role of Jewish women in writers in the 19th and 20th centuries in America.
2 Comments
Eva Sideman
Dear
Dear Dena,
I would like to submit my book for publication. It is a memoir of my life, first in Communist Romania, then in Vienna, as a political refugee at the age of 15, and then in the United States as a high school, college, and graduate student and a citizen of this country. It (1) describes the life of a child and adolescent in a communist country from the age of four, (2) describes Romania in the context of the holocaust, the secret financial ransoms that took place in Romania in the 1950s to allow thousands of Jews to escape the country during this perilous time, and that helped rebuild the Romanian economy, and (3) tells the arc of my life in the U.S.A., the freedom and opportunities I had to earn a Ph.D. and an MBA, work at good jobs and reach prosperity. It is a story of persecution, quiet submission, irrepressible hope and determination, resilience, hard work, and the joy of survival. The audience can be teens, young adults, and adults of any age.
I am a learning and development professional, an executive coach, and a resume writer for C-suite clients. This is my first book. I look forward to hearing from you. Best regards,
Eva Sideman
David Goldman
Dear Dena,
When I was five years old, my father threatened to shoot Santa Claus with his military rifle on Christmas Eve. He had a sick sense of humor. As a Jewish man, he felt that Santa had no place in his house, yet other years he dressed up as Old Saint Nick to deliver presents to us. My Catholic-Italian mother, along with me and the rest of my siblings, never knew where we stood when it came to religion. When I was born, my parents held a Jewish bris, but they had to move the Christmas tree out of the apartment before the rabbi showed up and was scandalized. At every major holiday–both Jewish and Christian–it seemed as though the religious soul of my family was always at stake.
Sausage Jews is a hilarious and heartfelt story about growing up in a wonderfully dysfunctional Jewish-Italian family on Long Island. At 90,000 words, it is rich with dialogue and punctuated by humorous and poignant observational commentary on religious practices. Written in vignette-style chapters, this memoir chronicles the story of how I grew up confused and confounded by my family’s religious hypocrisy, and how both my faith and family were tested when I fell in love with a non-Jewish woman, forcing me to question my own cultural and religious identity, all while trying to make sense of the tyrannical figure in my life–my father.
I am a veteran high school English teacher, self-published children’s author, and independent singer/songwriter. I’m currently the co-host of a podcast called “The Off-Period Podcast,” in which two fellow English teachers and I discuss all things literary. Writing Sausage Jews has been a dream of mine since college, and it is with great pride that I submit it for your consideration. Everyone’s family has its own brand of crazy. I hope that you see some of your own family’s brand reflected in mine and take a chance on Sausage Jews.
If you are open to it, I’d love to send you any portion of my completed manuscript. Thank you so much for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
David Goldman