Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at the Sarasota Jewish Book Fair
Sacred Trash is the highly engaging story of the recovery of the Cairo Geniza, which is arguably the greatest discovery of Jewish manuscripts ever made. In Sacred Trash, Hoffman and Cole lead us into the richly textured Jewish world revealed by these manuscripts, as they also present the life stories of the modern scholars who devoted themselves to unearthing and studying the Geniza documents. These treasures, concealed for centuries behind a wall in one of Cairo’s oldest synagogues, reveal an entire civilization.
Adina Hoffman is the author of My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: A Poet’s Life in the Palestinian Century, which was named one of the best twenty books of 2009 by the Barnes & Noble Review and one of the top ten biographies of the year by Booklist. Peter Cole’s most recent book of poetry is Things on Which I’ve Stumbled, whose title poem revolves around the Cairo Geniza. Cole has received numerous honors for his work, including an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature; the PEN Translation Prize for Poetry; and fellowships from the NEA, the NEH, and the Guggenheim Foundation.
The authors will sign their book after the lecture. Books will be available for sale courtesy of Circle Books. Cost: Tickets start at $10.