228: Inserting Ourselves into the Story (with Rena Rossner)

We chat with author Rena Rossner about her new book, inserting ourselves into historical fiction, the fairy tales of her youth, and looking beyond the golem in Jewish folktales.    Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of antisemitism, leprosy/illness, pandemic, conflict/war, bigotry, cultural erasure, and misogyny.    Guest Rena Rossner hails from Miami Beach, Florida. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University's Writing Seminars program, Trinity College, Dublin, and she holds a MA in history from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Her debut novel, The Sisters of the Winter Wood, was listed as "One of the 100 Best Books" of the year by Publisher's Weekly. She currently lives in Israel, where she works as a Literary Agent at The Deborah Harris Agency. Her grandparents and great grandparents immigrated to the USA from Hungary, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova - their stories, together with her love of Jewish mythology and fantasy, inspire her work. Her most recent book is The Light of the Midnight Stars, which is now available.    Housekeeping - Recommendation: This week, Amanda recommends Gods & Lies from Realm. - Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books - Call to Action: Check out our merch at spiritspodcast.com/merch, including the expansion for our coloring book!      Sponsors - Stitch Fix is an online personal styling service that finds and delivers clothes, shoes, and accessories to fit your body, budget, and lifestyle. Get started at stitchfix.com/spirits for 25% off when you keep your whole box! - Skillshare is an online learning community where you can learn—and teach—just about anything. Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/spirits and get a two week free trial of Premium Membership. This week Amanda recommends “Writing for Expression: How to Make Your Words More Artful & Lyrical” by Hanif Abdurraqib. - Function of Beauty is hair care formulated specifically for you. Save 20% off your first order at functionofbeauty.com/spirits   Find Us Online If you like Spirits, help us grow by spreading the word! Follow us @SpiritsPodcast on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads. You can support us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/spiritspodcast) to unlock bonus Your Urban Legends episodes, director’s commentaries, custom recipe cards, and so much more. We also have lists of our book recommendations and previous guests’ books at http://spiritspodcast.com/books. Transcripts are available at http://spiritspodcast.com/episodes. To buy merch, hear us on other podcasts, contact us, find our mailing address, or download our press kit, head on over to http://spiritspodcast.com.   About Us Spirits was created by Julia Schifini, Amanda McLoughlin and Eric Schneider. We are founding members of Multitude, an independent podcast collective and production studio. Our music is "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0.