Bestselling author Allegra Goodman to speak at Ziskind Memorial Lecture in New Bedford

New York Times bestselling author Allegra Goodman will be the guest speaker at this year’s Rabbi Bernard H. and Minna Ziskind Memorial Lecture.

The annual event will be held on Sunday, June 12, at 7 p.m., at Tifereth Israel Congregation, 145 Brownell Ave., in New Bedford. Admission is free.

“I will talk about my work as a Jewish American writer, and on my writing process as well,” Goodman told The Herald News.

After the lecture, there will be a reception, as well as a book signing.

Goodman and her husband, David Karger, are based in Cambridge.

She was born in Brooklyn and raised in Hawaii. She attended Harvard University for her undergraduate studies, and went on to earn her Ph.D in English literature at Stanford University.

Goodman’s work spans everything from short stories to novels, to essays and reviews, and she’s written for various age groups as well, including a novel for younger readers, “The Other Side of the Island.”

Her work also features Jewish characters navigating the waters of faith and family; these are works rich in human drama and experience.

Goodman’s most recent novel was 2017’s “The Chalk Artist.”

In that book, Goodman “gets around to her own faith in the power of literature and teaching. She pits the very real benefits of forging deep understanding of the human condition through close reading of great literature against the addictively immersive but impersonal world of virtual reality video games,” writes book critic Heller McAlpin for NPR.

Her other novels include “Intuition,” “The Cookbook Collector,” “Paradise Park,” and “Kaaterskill Falls,” among others. She also has short story collections: “The Family Markowitz” and “Total Immersion.”

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Real-life inspiration often finds its way into Goodman’s work. Her sister, Paula Fraenkel, is an oncologist, and her experience in research labs is one of the inspirations for her 2006 novel “Intuition.”

Goodman’s essays and reviews have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Boston Globe and The American Scholar.

She won the 1991 Whiting Award for Fiction and has also won the Salon Award for Fiction.

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And she’s got more work coming out soon:

“My new novel is called 'SAM.'  It is coming out in January 2023,” she said.

For more information about Goodman and her work, visit https://allegragoodman.com.

To learn more about the upcoming Rabbi Bernard H. and Minna Ziskind Memorial Lecture, visit www.tinewbedford.org.

Herald News/Taunton Daily Gazette copy editor and digital producer Kristina Fontes can be reached at kfontes@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News and Taunton Daily Gazette today.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Allegra Goodman to speak at Ziskind Memorial Lecture New Bedford 2022