Center for the literary arts in New York State
A MULTIGENERATIONAL SAGA ABOUT THE TENACITY OF WOMEN
Elizabeth Graver
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
4:30 p.m. — Craft Talk, Multi-Purpose Room, Campus Center West
7:30 p.m. — Reading/Q&A, Multi-Purpose Room, Campus Center West
University at Albany, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany NY 12222
Elizabeth Graver is the author of Kantika (April 2023), a dazzling multigenerational saga about Sephardic Jewish families that moves from Istanbul to Barcelona, Havana, and New York, exploring displacement, endurance, and family as home.
Gish Jen said, “Intimately imagined, lyrically written, and rich with historical detail, Kantika weaves forced displacement, wild reinvention and triumphant healing into a big, border-crossing family saga. Marvelous!”
Graver’s fourth novel, The End of the Point, was long-listed for the 2013 National Book Award and selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, and The O. Henry Prize Stories.
The talk will be moderated by Edward Schwarzschild, professor at the University at Albany and a fellow at the New York State Writers Institute.
www.elizabethgraver.com | instagram.com/elizabeth.graver | facebook.com/elizabethgraverauthor | https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/72031.Elizabeth_Graver
Cosponsored by the English Department’s Creative Writing Program and Young Writers Program, and University at Albany Hillel.
Photo credit: Adrianne Mathiowetz
REVIEWS FOR KANTIKA
“In Graver’s vision, migration is never simply a one-way street from the Old World to the Promised Land. Rather, her characters zig and zag, doubting, retracing and remembering the places that have shaped them . . . Far from being a Pollyannaish tale of New World success, Kantika is a meticulous endeavor to preserve the memories of a family, an elegy and a celebration both.”
—Ayten Tartici, The New York Times Book Review
“A luminous story of a Sephardic family. Fans of family epics will love this.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A remarkable, lyrical work . . . Graver has written an elegant coming-of-age story that is also an epic of the Sephardi diaspora, spanning generations, wars, and continents.”
—Sarah Abrevaya Stein, Jewish Review of Books
“A story of immigration, tenacity, family bonds and change that sits in a sort of liminal space between fact and fiction, making for fascinating reading.”
—Jaime Herndon, Hadassah Magazine
“Graver’s paean to resolve and resiliency paints a vivid portrait of spirit and grit.”
—Carol Haggas, Booklist