ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Ruth Panofsky, a writer, literary scholar, and professor of English at Toronto Metropolitan University, sits down withJonathan Slater to examine the making of renowned Canadian Jewish writer Helen Weinzweig's seminal 1989 short story "My Mother's Luck." Working with material from Weinzweig's estate and the author's papers at the University of Toronto's Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Ruth traces the story's evolution and examines Weinzweig's writing process in volume 40 of Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes. Ruth and Jonathan chat about how a scholar navigates the archive of a writer, Weinzweig's fascination with biography and her distinctive authorial voice, and her legacy as a Canadian Jewish woman writer.
OUR GUEST
Ruth Panofsky, FRSC, is a professor of English at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she teaches courses on Canadian Jewish literature and Holocaust literature. She is the author of The Force of Vocation: The Literary Career of Adele Wiseman and co-editor of The Selected Letters of Margaret Laurence and Adele Wiseman. She co-edited volume 32 of Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, a special volume devoted to Canadian Holocaust literature.
RECOMMENDED READING
"The Making of Helen Weinzweig's 'My Mother's Luck,'" Ruth Panofsky, Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes
"Ambiguity and Paradox: A Converation with Helen Weinzweig," Ruth Panofsky, Canadian Literature
"A Sense of Loss: A Profile of Helen Weinzweig," Ruth Panofsky, Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture, and Social Justice
EPISODE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Host: Jonathan Slater
Producer/Editor: Theadora Draper
Music: J.K. Bradley
Executive Producers: Joshua Tapper and David S. Koffman
Tête-à-tête: Conversations in Canadian Jewish Studies is made possible by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Aid to Scholarly Journals program and the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies and J. Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry, both at York University.