Leora Skolkin Smith's Response to Marginalzing

Leora Skolkin Smith has sent in this thoughtful reponse to the issue of marginalzing.

I think when I first heard that the words "Israel" and "Palestine" were going to be added to the title of my novel, I was elated. I was eager for the chance to find readers who cared about the land and geography and history of Israel/Palestine as much as I did having grown up partially over there. I did not imagine--since the region is in the news daily--that this subtitling would be limiting or marginalizing. I thought it would work towards finding a very multicultural audience, and invite readers to feel Jerusalem in a sensory, passionate, and universal way--again, as I did. I was quite smug, in fact, about the possibilities. After all, Jerusalem was a major player now in everyone's global consciousness, both Israel and Palestine. How lucky I felt to be able to comfortably use this is a publicity-orientated way without feel ing I was exploiting my right to do so. I had birthrights! The novel did tell a story about a mother and daughter and the Jerusalem of 1963 that I dearly remembered as a child. It was part of me. I wasn't lying. I wasn't cheating. I really felt authentic.

But, unexpectantly, and quite suddenly what became a true asset turned into a serious liability. The word "Jewish writer" was added. That is, I wasn't really this odd creature raised by a Palestinian Jewish mother between New York and early Israel. I was now labeled just a "Jewish writer". For this reason, I was put in categories that weren't true for me or my work. I didn't identify with other American Jewish writers and my voice, my language and entire sensibility was completely different. This wasn't any sort of value judgement but it was a bit like putting an Irish women in a room full of Hindu Indians. It just wasn't my culture, I wasn't sharing the same themes, the same feelings or issues. Then I had to read where only "Jewish writers" read, thereby excluding everyone else. Then somehow make claims to knowing about the Jewish religion and heritage that were false for me. I am not religious. I don't even go to synagogue and I don't have politics which come from the more well-known themes of Jewish suffering. My mother and grandmother both were born in ancient Jerusalem, educated in Europe, and miraculously became fighters and nurses and teachers during the time of Hitler. The opposite of persecuted victims. I had absolutely no connection to the holocaust other than hearing stories of how my aunts and uncles fought in the underground and housed and clothed refugees. Of course I had absolute respect and admiration for the Jewish writers for whom the themes of the holocaust and the Jewish diaspora were urgent. It's just that I didn't have the same past. So, reading your column I felt inspired...I wanted to just add to the question about "niches", about identifying writers by ethnic or whatever lines. Since most writers need and cherish their individuality, their freedom to express it, as well as valuing the universality of feelings they own has all this niche stuff been inhibiting for others, too? A dark thought came to me Niche publicity tends to help publicize only certain books, and it becomes exclusive. Of course I've always wondered why people don't call Marilyn Robinson and Joan Didion "Christian White Writers". Many issues here. Some of them painful, some of them worth exploring.

Comments

[Heather Cook]

Or why there's a Black History Month but the thought of White History Month would be... sort of wrong. Or why when a woman writer succeeds it's more newsworthy than when a man does... even if it's the same sort of success...

I think it's more about the publishers trying to categorize books within categories. To be more specific because that's what their readers want. I would think that it's more prevalent in non fiction than fiction... I know I've chosen non fiction based on WHO wrote it and what sort of bias or unbias I think they might have... but in fiction, I don't think that I've ever picked a book because I knew the author was .

Ok, wait, that's a lie, I tend to seek out Southern writers. And I kind of avoid Canadian writers. (I'm Canadian)...

[Dr.Sue]

This is a fascinating topic--potentially incendiary, and I admire your bravery in taking it on so eloquently.

[John]

I don't think that all "Jewish" writers are alike, and certainly not in the way that Leora supposes. Just as not all "Women writers" are bra-burning feminists who were abused by their fathers...(etc., etc.) It feels like the stereotypes Leora is describing about being Jewish and a writer (which, sorry, she is) are her own.

[Leora Skolkin Smith]

John I have to take issue with what you are saying and I am sorry you have misinterpreted my post. I never said all Jewish writers were alike, I only stated that I was not religious, never attended synagogue, and that my past abroad involved a different geography than American Jews here who, perhaps, were drawing on different childhood memories and parents' stories. To be "Jewish" is by definition a term which defines a religion and an identification with a religion. So how you could possibly twist this into some weird accusation that I stereotype Jews is unfortunate. And terribly unfair. I was saying the very opposite: people, Jews, everyone-- need an individual self-definition and publishing tends to lump everyone together under these subgroups which is limiting. to everyone, not just me. And not just me as a Jew.

[Dr.Sue]

Leora asks, "Since most writers need and cherish their individuality, their freedom to express it, as well as valuing the universality of feelings they own has all this niche stuff been inhibiting for others, too?" This doesn't sound to me like she thinks all Jewish writers fit a certain stereotype--rather that stereotypes themselves are damaging to all writers and readers.

[Leora Skolkin Smith]

Heather, thank you so much for your thoughtful comments. You've aised some interesting questions!

Sue, thank you muchly!

[Barbara W. Klaser]

This post points out how sub-categorizing can lead to marginalizing. I'd so much rather see bookstores move away from subgenre designations like this and back to broader organization, so we can see the whole spectrum of literature spread out on the shelves in front of us, and we can pick and choose for ourselves. Books shouldn't be divided up by ethnicity, but by literary type. Beyond that the choice should be the reader's. As a reader I don't care what race the author is. I just want to be told a good story, and be able to choose for myself rather than being spoonfed a bunch of labels.

Thanks for these posts!

[David J. Montgomery]

It does seem that Leora is grouping together "other" Jewish writers, a group which she doesn't feel part of. That is probably what John was reacting to.

She writes: "I didn't identify with other American Jewish writers and my voice, my language and entire sensibility was completely different."

But to state that the "other American Jewish writers" were definable as a group seems to be reflective of the same type of thought process that she's reacting to in the first place.

Her point is not that "American Jewish writers" don't exist as a group, merely that she wasn't one of them. Why is it okay to lump other writers into this group, but not her?

I don't point this out to be argumentative, as I think Leora's motives were sincere. However, it just goes to show that there is a natural human impulse to group together things, people, books, etc. which is not necessarily done out of prejudice, stereotype or other ill motive.

[Leora Skolkin Smith]

Barbara, I entirely agree with what you're saying. This is what is wrong. The constant need to sub-categorize because the category you've been put it doesn't fit in with your own truth about your work or your own writing.
I think that being judged here, as someone who is stereotyping American Jewish writers rather than simply saying; hey, you know what? I didn't grow up here. I can read Ahrenfeld, a Jewish writer who lives in Israel because I know his world better,I read can read Proust because it's closer to my own soul--not the popular American writers, or the Americanized version of "being Jewish". To believe there isn't a common language to American writing, whether it's Jewish or Christian or any religion, is utterly strange to me. To think that geography and a foreign land might mould one's consciousness differently and to further accuse someone of being prejudiced because they are simply stating they can't identify with a majority sort makes me wish I never posted. To be able to be Jewish with the freedom to embrace one's personal history was what I was reaching for. I am sorry if I've offended. I really am. When on a Jewish Book Tour, most of the themes were about commonly held beliefs, customs, and sensibilities,exclusively American themes.Not being able to feel an affinity with these themes has been exactly the difficulty I've been experiencing.
I'm sorry I can't explain further. Bt I think I've already tried to and it hasn't been received.

[Leora Skolkin Smith]

Sorry, again, but I forgot to add this to what David Montgomery was saying. He states:
"Her point is not that "American Jewish writers" don't exist as a group, merely that she wasn't one of them. Why is it okay to lump other writers into this group, but not her?"

David, first point: Because I'm not American, so yes, I don't feel a part of a group all called "American Jewish Writers"
Secondly, if there is a Jewish Book Council in which a group of writers in America are selected for a national tour, isn't that a group? Am I the one who "lumped" everyone into a group or was it the Council and the publishers. the group existed, it was sent on tour. I was among them. Not my doing.

[Barry Eisler]

I think this idea of "marginalization" looks different if you examine it from a marketing, rather than from an artistic, perspective.

All mass markets contain niches that are more easily reached individually than collectively. For example, I don't think of my books only as martial arts stories, but they contain martial arts (MA) sequences and I emphasize the MA elements when I'm pitching the books to MA media. This strategy makes sense to me: it's a lot easier for me to get coverage in dedicated MA media than it is in Time magazine. Ditto for the stories' Asian elements, tradecraft, current political themes... these are all elements that can be used to get a toehold in niche markets. Get enough of those toeholds, and soon you'll be climbing the mass market mountain.

(Want to know whether there's a niche market for your book? Go to the magazine store. If there's a weekly magazine covering a significant element in your books, congratulations, you've found an exploitable niche).

I was born and grew up in New Jersey. When I'm in that neck of the woods on the tour and trying to get media coverage along the way, believe me, I'm a New Jersey writer.

Do any of these categorizations straightjacket my art? I don't think so. But I know they help me sell it.

There seems to be a submarket for things Jewish, as demonstrated by a Google search and a visit to the magazine store ("Heeb: The New Jew Review"). (Come to think of it, I'm Jewish... why haven't I contacted Heeb?!)

Likewise, if there were no identifiable black market niche, there would be no Black Entertainment Television, no Ebony magazine, etc. If I were black, I would take full advantage in contacting these pre-selected media outlets.

But that's just me. When I'm writing, I think of myself as an artist. When I'm selling, I'm a salesman. If you've sold your art, you're unavoidably both, although the right balance will differ from person to person.

It may be that when publishers classify their writers as "woman writers" or "black writers" or "Jewish writers," they're thinking more about marketing advantage than artistic limitation. Just another way to look at it.

Cheers,

Barry

[Leora Skolkin Smith]

Barry, I think what you've said is very important. And I really found an amazing audience when I was sold as an Israeli/Palestinian Jewish writer, and I found an audience that I would have never found without that "label". It invited all sorts of wonderful readers who were so glad to see a very small national/ehthnic subgroup be identified and finally recognized. My publishers, in fact, had only this in mind when they put the subtitle on,and I was proud and had no problem with being an Israeli/Palestinian JEWISH writer. The problems come when a writer is thrown into a majority that this writer will only be marginalized in (as evidenced by some of these posts,and clearly unaccepted as coming from a different place, a different set of contexts) It's funny, they held the same Jewish Book Week in England and my heart hurt because I so wanted to be a part of it. I felt I belonged among the writers there. (My other and uncles all were educated in England and Palestine was a British colony during the time of my mother's childhod, she was British citizen) Jewish writers represented there, mostly European, were close to me and my work. Not everyone is American, not everyone is benefited by being put in such a majority category where "stars" are created because they reflect a majority experience and one is left as a shadow on the wall because of the more dominant American themes. I can undersatnd your point, Barry, but feel this can all backfire, marginalizing a writer and creating hostility towards that marginalized writer's worrk for no reason. I think I would have really enjoyed being a Middle Eastern Jewish writer. It wasn't the "Jewish" part that was problematic, it was the "American" label.Often it's been my experience that some Americans don't understand how alienating it is to be from another country, albeit partially in my case, but nonetheless, it made all the difference in my sensibility. There's a wonderful website called: "Moorish Girl", by Laila Lalami, a Morroccan writer and she's so sharp and strong about her experiences as a Morrocan writer in AAmerica, so true to her art. She opened up all sorts of new places for readers. This is terrific and good marketing. Vanishing a writer into a majority isn't.

[Serafina]

Thanks for clarifying, Leora. In your original essay, you said, "But, unexpectantly, and quite suddenly what became a true asset turned into a serious liability. The word 'Jewish writer' was added. That is, I wasn't really this odd creature raised by a Palestinian Jewish mother between New York and early Israel. I was now labeled just a 'Jewish writer'." It's interesting that you rebelled against being part of a larger publishing niche--American Jewish writers==rather than the more narrow one that you defined yourself. It's that in-between space that seems to be objectionable and marginalizing rather than the general space or the more precisely specific space. This is just a thought in process, but I suspect that the reading public at large doesn't see the American Jewish writer niche as being as constricting and uncomfortable as you did. For those of us outside that world, we can accept more varieties of experience within the marketing label because we don't understand the typically defining structures of that particular niche as well as you do. You seem to be saying, "I'm a writer who is Jewish but not that kind of Jewish Writer." It's the middle space rather than the edges that can feel so marginalizing.

[Leora Skolkin Smith]

Serafina, thank you so much. Yes, that is exactly what was so different an experience and I was trying to articulate it (probably terribly and th what I said caused such misunderstanding. And I am sorry I didn't say it better, my fault). Anyway, yes--I was uncomfortable in the general, middle spaces and felt perfectly wonderful about being on the margins. Strange turn-a-round. And so insightful for you to point this out. I really had a lot of Arab, Muslim, and Christian friends and other writers I loved to talk about the issues of war and identity with and suddenly I lost them because I think often people get intimidated by other and large ethnic groups, --and being "Jewish" is so potentially incendiary as Dr. Sue pointed out. I especially enjoyed showing my childhood world to people, everyone, not having it being "pegged" just as a "Jewish" world. My great-grandmother was born in old Jerusalem and it WAS multi-cultural then, in the early 1800's. So the the point is, sometimes the margin is good, wonderful and I guess, sometimes a larger group can marginalizes you right out of visibility by denying that margin. But I think that's the difference between the words "margin" and "maginalized". the latter being an active verb, the former being not such a bad thing after all. Being in a minority doesn't mean you or your work is worth less.

Many thanks again Serafina.

[Nancy French]

When I wrote a book, it was called "Christian fiction" and shelved in the back of the store...

So depressing. You don't see a novel written by a relativist shelved with other like-minded authors... Or a humanist or whatever. I understand the need to classify people, but it's so limiting...

[Leora Skolkin Smith]

Thanks, Nancy
Yes, it sure is!

[Bestselling Author, Pontif.]

Marginalizing should occur only when the work restricts itself to be so.

An authors race, religion or gender should have nothing to do with it. Period. Point. Blank.

[Leora Skolkin Smith]

Well said, Pontif. I agree.