Best-selling author Anita Diamant discussed her development as a female Jewish writer before a crowd of about 60 people Wednesday night in the chapel at Brown Hillel.
Diamant is known for her works of fiction and non-fiction, including 1997's "The Red Tent," which benefited from word-of-mouth and the support of independent bookstores and was eventually awarded the Booksense Book of the Year Award in 2001.
"The Red Tent" is a work of historical fiction that unfolds through the voice of Dinah, a biblical figure from Genesis. In Genesis, Dinah does not have a voice of her own - her rape is told of by her brothers. "The Red Tent" carries the reader into Dinah's imagined perspective and into the eponymous tent, an intimate and cloistered area reserved for menstruating women who share their private lives and gossip. Diamant said Dinah is one of "the obscured women of the Bible," of whom "all we have is their name."
Diamant started the talk by posing a question she is often asked: "Does it bother you that your audience is so largely female?"
She acknowledged that her readership is "by and large" female - "in fact, I assume my readers are women" - but she said "that doesn't disavow male readers." Diamant said she isn't bothered by the female-dominated audience since historically, before the 20th century, all major writings had male audiences.
Diamant said that "nothing is known about women before the 18th century" and credited Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf with being among the first women to challenge this fact. Women writers are "still in the process of finding our voices and telling our stories," Diamant said. "'The Red Tent' was an attempt to answer Virginia Woolf's challenge."
Diamant emphasized the broader appeal of "The Red Tent" - "In the process I found myself writing about (the) universal woman's experience," she said. Diamant said she is attempting to give a "voice to a whole universe of women's silence" through her work and said that is why "The Red Tent" has been translated into over 20 languages.
The author advised her readers to read the book with caution and not romanticize women's past conditions. "I would not want to live in any part of history prior to right now," she said firmly.
Although Diamant focused the talk on the feminine aspect of her writing, she remains anchored in her strong Jewish beliefs. "I find there's a tremendous lack of fiction written about realities of Jewish community," she said, referring to her motivations for writing "Good Harbor," a novel which addresses the issue of breast cancer in Jewish women.
Having begun her career in journalism and essay-writing, Diamant was used to the first person. "For me, it was always a feminine 'I,' " she said, adding, "the feminine 'I,' for me, was also Jewish." She acknowledged the role these Jewish and female dimensions have played in her success, recognizing that "Jewish women have been especially supportive of my work."
"It's a wonderful time to be a woman writer. It's a wonderful time to be reading women writers," she said.
Rabbi Serena Eisenberg '87, executive director of Brown Hillel, introduced Diamant and dedicated the event to the memory of Gladys Kapstein '40, a member of Brown's Board of Religious Affairs and a longtime benefactor of Brown Hillel who died in 1993.
Diamant has published numerous non-fiction books around the theme of life cycles in Judaism, including "Choosing a Jewish Life," "The New Jewish Wedding" - which Eisenberg called no less than a "Bible for weddings" - and "The New Jewish Baby Book."
But Diamant has not limited her work to Jewish themes. In her most recent novel, "The Last Days of Dogtown," she explores the under-privileged classes of rural Massachusetts in the early 1800s.
The author also recently founded a community center and ritual bathhouse called Mayyim Hayyim - Hebrew for "Living Water." Diamant's personal Web site says the center serves as a site of "interdenominational cooperation, a home for study, celebration" that is at the same time reserved as a "unique resource for the Jewish community."
Despite Diamant's lively reinterpretations and powerful scene-writing, even her fiction books may be a little disconcerting for an audience she does not often target: non-Jewish male readers. Sure enough, many of the event's attendees were Hillel members, and there were nearly no males, save for a few middle-aged men who accompanied their wives.
The talk was followed by a book signing. A large group of eager students queued to speak with Diamant, who took a few minutes to converse with each reader. Diamant is currently finishing a book tour, and although she does not know what her next book will be about, she said that she has been working on some "very light" comedy.
