Lane Dworkin Rochester Jewish Book Festival

Lane Dworkin Authors + Innovators Festival

Fiction Panel Lunch

Join us for conversation with three amazing authors.
Moderated by journalist and Authors + Innovators committee member Ellen Comisar.

Sara Goodman Confino
Don’t Forget to Write

When Marilyn Kleinman is caught making out with the rabbi’s son in front of the whole congregation, her parents ship her off to her great-aunt Ada for the summer. If anyone can save their daughter’s reputation, it’s Philadelphia’s strict premier matchmaker. Either that or Marilyn can kiss college goodbye. To Marilyn’s surprise, Ada’s not the humorless septuagenarian her mother described. Not with that platinum-blonde hair, Hermès scarf, and Cadillac convertible. She’s sharp, straight-talking, takes her job very seriously, and abides by her own rules…mostly.

Sara Goodman Confino teaches high school English and journalism in Montgomery County, Maryland, where she lives with her husband, two sons, and miniature schnauzers, Sandy and Gracie.

When she’s not writing or working out, she can be found on the beach or at a Bruce Springsteen show, sometimes even dancing onstage. Confino is the bestselling author of She’s Up to No Good and For the Love of Friends.

Lee Matthew Goldberg
The Great Gimmelmans

Middle child Aaron Gimmelman watches as his family goes from a mild-mannered reform Jewish clan to having over a million dollars of stolen money stuffed in their RV’s cabinets while being pursued by the FBI and loan sharks. From Jersey, down to an Orthodox Jewish community in Florida where they hide out, and up to California, The Great Gimmelmans goes on a madcap ride through the 1980s. This thrilling literary tale mixes Michael Chabon and the Coen Brothers with equal parts humor and pathos. Kirkus review: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lee-matthew-goldberg/the-great-gimmelmans/

Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of fourteen novels. He was nominated for an Anthony Award and the Prix du Polar. After graduating with an MFA from the New School, he’s been published in multiple languages and his writing has also appeared as a contributor in CrimeReads, Pipeline Artists, LitHub, Chicago Quarterly Review, Electric Literature, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, LitReactor, Mystery Tribune, and others.

Samantha Greene Woodruff
The Trade Off

Inspired by the true story of a pioneering investment legend, The Trade Off is a powerful novel about identity, sacrifice, family loyalties, and the complex morality of money.

Bea Abramovitz has a gift for math and numbers. With her father, she studies the burgeoning Wall Street market’s stocks and patterns in the financial pages. After college she’s determined to parlay her talent for the prediction game into personal and professional success. But in the 1920s, in a Lower East Side tenement, opportunities for women don’t just come knocking. Bea will have to create them. It’s easier for her golden-boy twin brother, Jake, who longs to reclaim all their parents have lost after fleeing the pogroms in Russia to come to America. Well-intentioned but undisciplined, Jake has a charm that can carry him only so far on Wall Street.

Samantha Greene Woodruff spent nearly two decades working on the business side of media, primarily at Viacom’s Nickelodeon, before leaving corporate life to become a full-time mom. In her newfound “free” time, she took classes at the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, where she accidentally found her calling as a historical fiction author. Sam’s debut novel, The Lobotomist’s Wife, was a #1 Amazon bestseller and First Reads pick. Her writing has appeared in Newsweek, Writer’s Digest, Female First, Read 650 and more.

Tickets:
JCC Member: $25
Non-member: $30

Ticket includes a kosher lunch provided by Lipman’s Kosher Butcher and Market

Lunch available at 11:30 AM
Panel starts at 12:00 PM

Buy Tickets

Location: JCC Auds