Our outstanding faculty includes:
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AARON HAMBURGER, award-winning author of The View from Stalin’s Head and Faith for Beginners.
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DARA HORN, critically acclaimed author of The World to Come and In the Image and recently named one of the “Best Young American Novelists” by Granta magazine
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JASON SOMMER, poet, teacher, and author of several books of poetry, including The Man Who Sleeps in My Office.
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Sofer Program Director NEIL RIGLER, teacher and workshop leader
SOFER gives you time to:
- Write with others who share your interests.
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Discuss your writing with published authors.
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Share your ideas about Jewish writing and literature.
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Learn strategies for editing and publishing your work.
SOFER is a unique event for all who write, whether in pursuit of profession or pleasure. This program brings you close to truly outstanding writers and teachers, and provides you with the opportunity to further sharpen your skills, explore new streams of interpretation and share your work with others who can support your efforts.
Whether you write about Jewish themes or are simply connected to the Jewish thread in your heritage, SOFER is for you.
WORKSHOPS
Workshops comprise the basis of SOFER - workshops which will match you with teachers and other participants in close learning opportunities providing you with personal attention and involvement. In these workshops you can present your own work and listen to that of others. A key element of this program is the opportunity to study with prominent Jewish writers in small groups.
Workshops will focus on style, revision, creativity, interpretation, and public presentation while providing response from faculty and fellow participants.
Themes of the workshop emphasize:
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Creative Non-Fiction
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Fiction
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Poetry
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Publishing Your Work
Each day will feature a variety of extended workshop time, individual writing time, and informal sharing opportunities. The writing faculty will offer special presentations of their work, and all participants will have the opportunity to share work created during the weekend.
Participants in SOFER will have several opportunities over the course of the weekend to have workshop leaders and the other participants in your workshop hear and respond to your writing, with an emphasis on pieces created during Sofer.
FACULTY
Aaron Hamburger is the author of The View from Stalin's Head, a book of short stories set in Prague, as well as a new novel, Faith for Beginners, which takes place in Israel. For his first book, he was awarded the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He holds degrees from Columbia University and the University of Michigan and teaches in Brooklyn.
Dara Horn's first novel, In the Image, received a 2003 National Jewish Book Award, the 2002 Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and the 2003 Reform Judaism Fiction Prize. Her second novel, The World to Come, received the 2006 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction, was selected as an Editor's Choice in The New York Times Book Review and as one of the Best Books of 2006 by The San Francisco Chronicle, and has been translated into nine languages. In 2007, Dara Horn was chosen by Granta magazine as one of the Best Young American Novelists. She has taught courses in Jewish literature and Israeli history at Harvard and at Sarah Lawrence College.
Jason Sommer has published three poetry collections: Lifting the Stone, Other People's Troubles, and The Man Who Sleeps in My Office. He has also published verse in The New Republic, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, and other magazines, and in several anthologies, including The New American Poets. His work has been honored with a National Endowment for the Humanities grant and, in 2001, with the coveted Whiting Foundation Writers' Award. Since 1985 he has served as Professor of English and Poet-in-Residence at Fontbonne University.
Sofer Program Director Neil Rigler teaches English and Film Studies at Deerfield High School in Deerfield, IL and serves as the advisor for the literary magazine and the improv comedy troupe. He has been teaching there for eight years, after completing Masters degrees in both Education and English at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. As a member of the Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking, he has been teaching in the Lake Forest College Summer Writing Workshop for the past eight summers and has participated in several weekend and summer workshops at Bard College, as well. Rigler is a regular presenter at the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) conference.
LODGING AND ACCOMODATIONS
OSRUI is located in southeastern Wisconsin on the shores of beautiful Lac La Belle. Accommodations are provided in The Bayit, a turn-of-the-20th-century mansion, and the Daniel M. Soref Education and Alumni Center. Both buildings feature double rooms with private baths. OSRUI includes a variety of recreational facilities, including an indoor sports center.
FEES AND REGISTRATION
Registration for SOFER: The Jewish Writers’ Workshop is on a first come, first served basis only. Fees cover accommodations, meals (Thursday dinner through Sunday breakfast) and all programming. The cost of the program is $410; the fee for full-time teachers and full-time students is $300. Pre-registration and confirmation from us are required. We can accept registration for the full three nights only; we regret that we cannot accept other types of registration, walk-ins, guests, or visitors.
For registration information, please contact Barbara Gordon
at 847-239-6984 or bgordon@urj.org
For program information, please contact Neil Rigler at sofer2008@aol.com
This program is underwritten in part through
a generous grant from the Daniel M. Soref Charitable Trust.
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