In 2014, author and literary scholar David Stromberg took his first trip to the archives at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas, in search of material by the late Yiddish-language Jewish-American writer Isaac Bashevis Singer. He hit the motherlode.
Times of Israel, Yaakov Schwartz, JUne 5, 2021
"Few things rile an online crowd like a mistake in The New York Times. One example is the Twitter account of a contemptuous troll dedicated to pointing out typos and grammar mistakes in the paper of record. But there’s another category of error — the botching of a fraught historical detail — that elicits a special shock and insult."
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Asaf Shalev, June 4, 2021
"Stromberg's formal description of narrative modulations associates them with the communicative situation. Such an approach allows for a flexible understanding of the interplay of form and ethos (content). Stromberg combines narratological inquiry with studying manuscripts while tracking the origin of apparent inconsistencies (incentives to doubt), in the evolving intentions of an author."
Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas, 18.1 (2020), 186-190
"David Stromberg is the editor of the new book In the Land of Happy Tears: Yiddish Tales for Modern Times, a collection of Yiddish fiction for children. His work has appeared in various publications, including Ambit and Chicago Literati, and his other books include the cartoon collection Baddies."
Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, January 4, 2019
"David Stromberg, together with five scholarly translators, presents the first English renditions of eighteen Yiddish children’s stories written in the first third of the twentieth century. . . . The stories that best translate to today are those in which empathy and goodness reign."
Jewish Book Council, November 12, 2018
"The Shmooze caught up with David Stromberg over dinner at an outdoor café in New York where we learned about his latest book, a collection of newly translated Yiddish stories for readers of all ages. David is a self-described Yiddish-activist who worked hard to bring these largely overlooked works to publication."
Yiddish Book Center, October 21, 2018
"For juvenile readers, In the Land of Happy Tears is a worthwhile volume, which may very well illumine a world seemingly lost to assimilation and genocide. Those a bit older should be lucky enough to have someone elucidate the text."
Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, October 5, 2018
"Several gems stand out. . . . A 'Glossary of Untranslatables' at the end provides additional explanation of Yiddish expressions and how they have (or haven’t) made their way into English."
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 72.1 (2018), 41
"Squirrel families, human families, the moon, kings, witches, and sorcerers all inhabit these tales set in small towns, palaces, and natural places through all four seasons. . . . Yiddishkeit that is entertaining, meaningful, and very much still relevant."
Kirkus Reviews, September 18, 2018
"Listen here, children, do you want to know something? Once upon a time in the 20th century there were storytellers who wrote only in Yiddish. . . . If you wanted to read the stories you couldn’t, unless you knew Yiddish, but what? Now you can read them."
Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2018
"A conversation with David Stromberg, a writer, translator, and literary scholar who is the editor to the Singer estate."
The New Yorker, April 30, 2018
"Deborah Treisman exchanged e-mails with David Stromberg, a writer, translator, and literary critic who lives and works in Jerusalem, and who uncovered Isaac Bashevis Singer’s story 'Inventions,' which was published—for the first time in English—in the magazine this week."
The New Yorker, January 19, 2015
"David Stromberg’s Baddies falls on the 'really good' side of the zany divide. It has also been described, by everyone from the LA Times to Aimee Bender, as strange, eccentric, wonderful and darkly funny."
We Love You So, February 16, 2010
"In Baddies, David Stromberg has created a cozy little planet of alter egos and parallel lives, urban marginals with vaguely Eastern European names. . . . Fantastic."
Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2009
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