Jewish Sentences: Strategies for Creative Writing

This is a live seminar course and enrollment will be capped at about 15 students. The course will be conducted in English.

Instructor: Jacob Montgomery

In this workshop course, students will carry on the legacy of Jewish literature and discourse through writing, reading, and amicable debate. The course has two primary components. The first, in order of importance, is writing. Each session will involve writing exercises that students begin in class and can continue to work on—and receive feedback on—outside of class. These writing exercises will ask students to think creatively and personally and to use language in interesting ways. To help students get going, the instructor will provide writing strategies, examples of technique from the Jewish canon, and generative (and fun) writing prompts.

The second component of the course is reading. The course is built on the notion that to become a great writer, one must first become a great reader, and is there a better way to hone our reading skills than to examine some of the finest works of literature by Jewish authors? From the two great Isaacs—Babel and Bashevis Singer—to Cynthia Ozick and Grace Paley, from Stein and Kafka to Bernard Malamud, from Hasidic tales to contemporary Jewish writers like Etgar Keret and Rivka Galchen, we will immerse ourselves in the words of masters of craft and style. Each week students will be asked to read a few short pieces and to bring their reactions and opinions to class for discussion. The teacher will provide critical analysis and connect each reading to the literary devices and writing topics covered that week.

Students of all levels of writing and workshop experience—from beginners to the more advanced—are encouraged to join this writing workshop. The first few weeks of the course will involve learning (or reviewing) key terminology for literary criticism and close reading and applying them to short stories and poems by great Jewish writers. These early sessions will also be used to generate student writing by examining techniques for writing exposition, description, character, dialogue, tension, and more while employing these techniques in writing exercises.

The primary expectation of the course is that—starting midway through—students will submit one 10-page work of writing—a short story, a personal narrative, or a series of poems—that will be read and discussed by the class in formal workshops during the second half of the course. Before workshops begin, the teacher will expose students to the process and rules of a workshop in which, for example, students are asked to make descriptive rather than proscriptive statements about each other’s writing. Whether you are a seasoned veteran of writing workshops or a reader who would like to try your hand at writing for the first time, this workshop will welcome you and teach you something about Jewish literature, writing, and yourself.

Course Materials:
The instructor will provide all course materials digitally to students throughout the class.

Jacob Rosenson Montgomery is a writer and educator who has led creative writing workshops for adults and undergraduate students and taught literature at the university and secondary levels. Jacob was raised in M’Kor Shalom, a Reform synagogue in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. After college, he studied in the Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop where took poetry workshops with distinguished professors and peers and taught literature and writing courses to undergraduate students. He was then awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Fellowship in Mexico City where he taught English, improved his Spanish, and developed a deep appreciation of Latin American literature. While in Mexico City, Jacob led a poetry workshop in Spanish at the U.S. embassy’s Benjamin Franklin Library. He then moved to Panajachel, Guatemala where he taught ELA and writing at an English language high school. COVID-19 forced Jacob to return to his native east coast, and he is now enjoying teaching and tutoring remotely and living near his family. He is thrilled to be teaching YIVO’s creative writing workshop and to return to his favorite Jewish authors while also getting the opportunity to exchange ideas and writing with students.

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