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Winnipeg-born writer Sidura Ludwig receives 2021 Vine Award for new collection of short stories
By MYRON LOVE You could rightly say that Sidura Ludwig is “over the moon” about being named the winner of the 2021 Vine Award for fiction for “You Are Not What We Expected”, her first collection of short stories.
“This is a huge honour,” says the former Winnipegger. “I am thrilled, overwhelmed, speechless. It was a real surprise. I didn’t even realize that my book still qualified as it was released 18 months ago.”
She was notified in October that she had been shortlisted for the award – which was presented in November at an online-only ceremony. “I was given a week’s notice that I won so that I had time to prepare and pre-record my acceptance speech,” she reports.
As per the Koffler Centre of the Arts – the Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature sponsoring organization – the annual national awards program “honours both the best Canadian Jewish writers and non-Jewish Canadian authors who deal with Jewish subjects in Fiction, History, Non-Fiction, Young Adult/Children’s literature, and Poetry”. Each winning author receives a prize of $10,000. The 2021 three-person Jury reviewed 42 entries to the Fiction, History, Non-Fiction and Young Adult/Children’s categories.
The Lillian and Norman Glowinsky Foundation is the lead funder for the Vine Awards.
As was reported in The Jewish Post & News in January of last year (2020) prior to Ludwig’s in-person presentation at Limmud that year, “You Are Not What We Expected” is the former Winnipegger’s second book. Her first novel, “Holding My Breath”, was published in 2007.
The daughter of Israel and Maylene Ludwig has been writing seriously since she was a teenager. She left Winnipeg originally in 1994 to study at York University. After graduation, she was back here for a year working as a teacher’s assistant, then went back east to study Journalism at Carleton. In between, she married and she and her husband eventually settled in Thornhill in 2004.
She also worked for a time as a journalist and in communications, largely on a freelance basis before starting a family. “I found as a young mother than I didn’t have a lot of time to read novels,” she recalled in that earlier interview. “I gravitated to short stories – which was always my first love. I really appreciate the ability of writers to tell larger stories in a few pages.”
She says that she worked on her newest publication over a period of five years. “It started as a novel,” she notes, “but it just wasn’t working for me. I began to focus on the individual characters and develop each as a short story.”
During that time, she also enrolled in some writing courses through the Sarah Selecky Writing School and Humber College. She set herself a goal of trying to send out five submissions a week and, after a year, had nine short stories published in different media. That gave her the confidence that there enough interest in the stories to approach.
“You Are Not What We Expected” (which was published by House of Anansi) recount s the lives of the multi-generational Levine family and their neighbours over a period of 15 years, capturing their celebration, transitions and drama in their lives.
The author notes that “You Are Not What We Expected” is widely available in bookstores and that the book has been very well received. “I have received a lot of invitations to do book club zooms session,” she reports. “Next week, for example, I have been invited to participate in a zoom session by a book club in Modiin in Israel.”
In July, Ludwig graduated from a Masters Degree program in Fine Arts specializing in writing books for children and young adults at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is working on a some picture books for younger children and a novel intended for middle grade students.
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Talented Winnipeg composer Sara Kreindler teams up with her mother Reena Kreindler to create new satirical show to premiere here in May
By BERNIE BELLAN It’s been many years since I’ve heard from Sara Kreindler. Sara’s name first appeared in The Jewish Post & News in 2002 when a satirical musical titled “A Touch of Class” was reviewed by the late Arnold Ross. That particular production featured songs from popular Broadway shows that touched upon themes such as “greed, poverty, oppression, and social unrest.”
When she appeared in that show, Ross noted, Kreindler had just recently returned to Winnipeg from England, where she had obtained a doctorate in Social Psychology from Oxford University.
While at Oxford, Kreindler found time to compose a satirical musical titled “Charity,” which played to rave reviews there, and was performed five times.
Continuing in the theme of writing satirical musicals, Sara has now teamed up with her mother, Reena, to write a new musical titled “A Perfect Man,” which is set to run at the Gargoyle Theatre from May 6-17.
According to a press release we received, “A Perfect Man” is “a satirical musical, set on a fictional analogue of ‘The Bachelor’.
“The story follows an anthropologist who arrives to research TV’s hottest reality-dating show — only to discover she’s been made a contestant, and the bachelor is her high school crush. Past and present collide against an exuberant pastiche score that uses vintage musical styles to highlight modern absurdities.”
“Praised as ‘a musician [who] can make biofuels funny’ (CBC), Sara is known for whip-smart satire on a panoply of topics. Her digital musical, ‘Larry Saves the Canadian Healthcare System, created during her former life as an academic, has garnered over 84,000 YouTube views. Naturally, she had a field day with the subject of reality dating.
“The topic just begs for campy zaniness, which I think we all need in these times — but also for a more cerebral critique of what these shows say about the culture that spawned them,” says Kreindler. And thanks to the romance context, the satire is woven into a deeper, more personal story. “It’s satire with a heart.”
Here is some more information about Sara Kreindler, taken from a 2009 article I wrote about her:
“Born in Israel, Sara’s precocious talent was nurtured by her mother, Reena, whose own particular talent is literary, not musical. According to Reena, however, Sara was singing from the time she was a baby, and she began to study piano at the age of four.
“As a young girl, Sara began writing her own songs and poems, along with the “occasional musical”, notes Reena. Yet, Sara’s rare talent put her at odds with the typical interests of other children her own age, on top of which she attended a school to which she was exposed to a fair degree of antisemtism.
“As a result, Sara says, being bullied was a common aspect of her childhood. On one occasion, when she was nine, she notes, Sara fought back against one particular bully by reciting the following little ditty:
“I write so many epigrams to you that all the people laugh.
I’m tired of writing epigrams.
I want to write your epitaph!”
“Sara went on to compose a musical titled ‘Flutesong’ while she was a student at Vincent Massey Collegiate, she says. After doing her undergraduate work at the University of Manitoba, majoring in Psychology, Sara won a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University.
“Sara eventually earned a doctorate in Social Psychology and returned to Winnipeg, where she began teaching at the University of Manitoba, but she said she didn’t enjoy the “mass production” style of teaching upwards of 300 students at a time, so she switched careers and began doing health research for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.”
All the while Sara has been continuing to compose and perform her own songs, often teaming up with her mother, as she has for “A Perfect Man.”
Showtimes and ticket information for The Perfect Man are available at:
http://www.thegargoyletheatre.com/upcoming-events/the-perfect-man
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Rabbi Kliel Rose to leave Congregation Etz Chayim for new post in Ottawa
The following email from Congregation Etz Chayim Executive Director Morissa Granove was sent to members of the congregation on Friday, April 10:
“Dear Members and Friends,
“As we know, Rabbi Kliel recently spent a weekend with Kehilllat Beth Israel where he has since been offered a position. After much thought and consideration, he has made the decision to sign a contract in Ottawa. He will continue to lead our congregation through Yom Kippur.
“This news marks a significant ending for our Etz Chayim community, and at the same time with change comes opportunity. Congregation Etz Chayim will soon embark on our own Rabbinical search with excitement as we look for our perfect candidates and explore the new possibilities that will help us to continue to shape a strong future for our synagogue and members.”
Kliel Rose took up the position of rabbi at Etz Chayim in August, 2018.
In an article announcing his appointment to the position in the June 6, 2018 issue of The Jewish Post & News, Myron Love wrote:
The congregation has been without a permanent rabbi since last summer when Rabbi Larry Lander chose to retire – after ten years here – and relocate to Toronto.
Kliel Rose is already a well-seasoned rabbi. He was ordained in 2004 by the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
He previously served as spiritual leader at the West End Synagogue in Nashville and Temple Enamu-El in Miami Beach. His current posting is Beth Shalom Synagogue in Edmonton.
Following the example of his parents, Kliel Rose has been active in interfaith dialogue and human rights work for which he was honoured in 2014 with the Human Rights Hero Award by Truah: The Rabbibic Call for Human Rights.
He has also participated in the Kellogg Management Education for Jewish Leaders program at Northwestern University and was most recently chosen to be among 20 rabbis from different denominations chosen to train in the Clergy leadership Incubator – a two-year program, under the leadership of Ranni Sidney Schwarz, intended to educate younger rabbis in innovative thinking, change management and institutional transformation.
In Edmonton, Rose also served as Jewish chaplain at the University of Alberta and took the lead on a program called “Faith and Inclusion”, whose mandate was to support individuals with cognitive and physical learning challenges to feel more welcome within various faith communities.