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Nathan Englander
Nathan Englander
Nathan Englander
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Nathan Englander (born 1970) is an American short story writer and novelist. His debut short story collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, was published by Alfred A. Knopf, in 1999. His second collection, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, won the 2012 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Key Information

Biography

[edit]

Nathan Englander was born in West Hempstead on Long Island, New York, and grew up there as part of the Orthodox Jewish community.[1] He attended the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County for high school and graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton and the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. In the mid-1990s, he moved to Israel, where he lived for five years.[2][3]

Englander lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his wife Rachel, and children Olivia and Sammy.[4] He formerly lived in Brooklyn, New York, and Madison, Wisconsin. He taught fiction as a part of CUNY Hunter College's Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing[5] and in the MFA program at New York University.[6]

Literary career

[edit]

Since the publication of For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, Englander has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Bard Fiction Prize, and a fellowship at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.[7] Four of his short stories have appeared in editions of The Best American Short Stories: "The Gilgul of Park Avenue" appeared in the 2000 edition, with guest editor E.L. Doctorow, "How We Avenged the Blums" appeared in the 2006 edition, guest edited by Ann Patchett, "Free Fruit for Young Widows" appeared in the 2011 edition, guest edited by Geraldine Brooks, and "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank" appeared in the 2012 edition, guest edited by Tom Perrotta. Another story in the collection, "The Twenty-Seventh Man," debuted as a play in November, 2012,[8] the subject of a radio program featuring audio of a reading by actor Michael Stuhlbarg.[9]

The Ministry of Special Cases, Englander's follow-up to his debut collection, was released on April 24, 2007. The novel is set in 1976 in Buenos Aires during Argentina's "Dirty War" and has been described as "an impeccably paced, historically accurate novel which is alternatively side-splitting and frighteningly macabre."[10] Englander has said of his novel: "... I resisted calling it a political book, in that it wasn’t my intent—that is, I had no corrupting (as I’d see it) preconceived position that I was pushing. There’s a lot of politics in my novel, because it’s central to the world of that novel."[11]

Englander's third book, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, a short story collection, was released on February 7, 2012.[12] The title story was featured in the December 12, 2011 issue of The New Yorker,[13] and the book won the 2012 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

In 2017, Englander was announced as juror for the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize.[14]

Awards and critical acclaim

[edit]

Published works

[edit]
  • For the Relief of Unbearable Urges New York Knopf 1999. ISBN 9780375404924, OCLC 245836139
  • The Ministry of Special Cases New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. ISBN 9780375404931, OCLC 938286689
  • What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank New York : Knopf, 2012. ISBN 9780307958709, OCLC 782137235
  • Dinner at the Center of the Earth New York, NY : Alfred A. Knopf, 2017. ISBN 9781524732738, OCLC 1002660851
  • Kaddish.com New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2019. ISBN 9781524732752, OCLC 1084694484

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Nathan Englander

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from Grokipedia
Nathan Englander (born ) is an American author of short fiction and novels whose works frequently examine , family dynamics, and through a lens informed by his Orthodox upbringing in New York. Educated at , the , and the , Englander debuted with the story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges in 1999, which achieved national bestseller status and introduced his distinctive voice blending humor with moral inquiry. His subsequent publications include the novels The Ministry of Special Cases (2007), set amid Argentina's , and Dinner at the Center of the Earth (2017), a meditation on Israeli-Palestinian conflict, alongside the finalist collection What We Talk About When We Talk About (2012). Englander has received the , the PEN/Malamud Award for short fiction, and the International Short Story Award, with his stories appearing in outlets such as and The Atlantic. He currently serves as Distinguished Writer in Residence at and resides in with his family.

Early Life and Background

Orthodox Jewish Upbringing

Nathan Englander was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family in West Hempstead, , New York, where was practiced as a strictly religious observance without cultural dilutions. His parents originated from , and he grew up alongside a sister in a household emphasizing religious discipline and ritual adherence, including influences varying from Orthodox to one reform grandfather. The family's environment instilled a profound sense of , with Englander later recalling his childhood as one where he felt inherently Jewish rather than American, marked by a pervasive fear of and potential recurrence of historical pogroms. His education occurred in a local , featuring rigorous daily schedules from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. under rabbis from traditional and Eastern European backgrounds, focusing heavily on Jewish texts like the while limiting exposure to secular subjects. The surrounding neighborhood formed a tight-knit Orthodox enclave, which Englander described as a "Jewish ," yet it was punctuated by overt antisemitic incidents, such as swastikas painted on the family home and . This community reinforced insularity, with limited interactions beyond until later years, fostering an education that Englander critiqued as anti-intellectual and insufficiently engaging for deeper theological inquiry. Childhood experiences were deeply intertwined with Holocaust awareness and survival hypotheticals; Englander and his sister routinely played the "Anne Frank game" or "Righteous Gentile Game," speculating which non-Jewish neighbors might hide them in the event of a second Holocaust. Personal encounters with violence, including being beaten for his Jewish identity, underscored the precariousness of their existence despite the protective community bubble. Religious observance dominated daily life, with entailing strict prohibitions like darkened rooms without electric aids—predating common workarounds such as Shabbat lamps—and an absence of non-religious leisure that confined activities to religious study and family rituals. This highly structured routine cultivated discipline through repetitive practices, though it also sowed seeds of rebellion against the conformity, as Englander noted the lack of intellectual challenge in rabbinic teachings contributed to his eventual departure from upon encountering broader perspectives.

Education and Formative Experiences

Englander attended the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, a private offering a yeshiva-style curriculum that emphasized Orthodox religious observance alongside secular studies. This environment reinforced his early immersion in Jewish texts and traditions, though he later described it as leaving gaps in exposure to broader . He enrolled at (then at Binghamton), where he double-majored in English and Judaic studies, graduating with a B.A. in 1991. Compared to his insular upbringing, the university's diverse courses and community proved liberating, expanding his intellectual horizons beyond Orthodox constraints. A pivotal formative experience occurred during his junior year abroad from 1989 to 1990 at the , which he characterized as life-changing for immersing him in 's cultural and political realities. This period, involving study amid the , intensified his engagement with Jewish identity, history, and secular influences, prompting subsequent summer returns to . Following graduation, Englander pursued at the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, earning an M.F.A. There, under faculty guidance, he honed his craft in a rigorous program known for fostering narrative innovation, marking a shift toward professional literary development away from his religious roots. This graduate training, combined with his earlier exposures, laid the groundwork for themes of , , and assimilation recurring in his work.

Literary Career

Debut and Short Fiction

Englander published his debut short story collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, on March 16, 1999, through Alfred A. Knopf. The volume comprises nine stories centered on Jewish characters navigating faith, identity, and moral dilemmas, often set in contemporary Orthodox or Hasidic communities. The title story depicts a Hasidic man in Soviet-era Russia granted permission by a rabbinical court to visit a prostitute as relief from his wife's frigidity, highlighting tensions between religious stricture and human desire. Other tales explore themes of assimilation, exile, and ethical compromise, drawing from Englander's own Orthodox upbringing while employing satirical and empathetic lenses. The collection garnered critical acclaim for its assured prose and fresh voice in Jewish-American literature, positioning Englander as a successor to writers like and . It became a national in both and formats, reflecting strong commercial reception alongside literary praise. Reviewers noted its irreverent energy and ability to transcend ethnic specificity, with stories appearing in prestigious anthologies such as and The O. Henry Prize Stories prior to book form. For this debut, Englander received the 2000 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, affirming its technical and thematic impact. These honors underscored the stories' precision in capturing the absurdities and profundities of religious life, though some critiques observed a reliance on familiar tropes of and without radical innovation.

Novels and Longer Works

Englander published his debut novel, The Ministry of Special Cases, in 2007 through . Set in during the onset of Argentina's in 1976, under General Jorge Videla's , the narrative centers on Kaddish Poznan, a Jewish man from a stigmatized background who erases names from Jewish tombstones for a living, and his wife Lillian, as their son disappears amid the regime's abductions of dissidents. The novel examines familial resilience and bureaucratic absurdity in the face of state terror, drawing on historical accounts of the estimated 30,000 "disappeared" during the junta's rule from 1976 to 1983. His second novel, Dinner at the Center of the Earth, appeared in 2017, also from Knopf. The story unfolds across timelines from 2002 to 2014, intertwining the experiences of an unnamed American-Israeli prisoner held in in an Israeli with broader events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the Second Intifada and operations in Gaza. It features elements of , personal betrayal, and moral ambiguity, with the protagonist's backstory revealing his role as a spy whose actions contribute to violence on both sides, culminating in a clandestine meeting in a Gaza . In 2019, Englander released kaddish.com, his third novel, published by Knopf. The plot follows Larry "Shuli" Sacks, a lapsed Orthodox Jew who, after his father's death in 1999, hires an online service to recite the traditional mourning prayer on his behalf to evade familial and religious obligations; two decades later, upon learning the proxy has died, Shuli embarks on a quest to rectify the spiritual lapse through direct confrontation with Orthodox rituals and family dynamics. The work satirizes modern dilutions of Jewish tradition while probing themes of guilt, redemption, and the tensions between and religious duty in contemporary American Jewish life.

Plays, Adaptations, and Other Writings

Englander adapted his short story "The Twenty-Seventh Man" into a play of the same name, which premiered at in New York on September 25, . The work dramatizes the arrest and execution of writers during Stalin's purges in 1952, focusing on a fictional young prisoner added to the list of condemned authors. He later adapted his Pulitzer Prize finalist short story "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank" into a stage play, which received its world premiere at in on September 18, 2022. The play explores tensions between two couples—one secular Jewish-American and one ultra-Orthodox Israeli—discussing faith, friendship, and over drinks, echoing Raymond Carver's structure while incorporating post-October 7, 2023, updates in recent productions. Its European premiere occurred at the Marylebone Theatre in on October 4, 2024, directed by and starring as the secular husband. Beyond theatrical adaptations, Englander co-translated and provided commentary for The New American (2012), a modern English rendition of the text collaborated on with novelist . His essays have appeared in outlets including , , The Atlantic, and .

Themes and Intellectual Contributions

Explorations of Jewish Identity and Tradition

Nathan Englander's works often examine the tensions inherent in , particularly the interplay between stringent Orthodox observance and modern secular impulses, informed by his own upbringing in an Orthodox community in . His fiction portrays characters grappling with religious rituals as anchors of identity amid personal and historical disruptions, reflecting a broader diasporic experience where tradition provides continuity but also constraint. Englander has described this as drawing from an "Orthodox world" he escaped yet comprehends intimately, using narrative to probe ethical dilemmas at the sacred-profane boundary rather than prescribing adherence. In his debut short story collection, (published April 1999), Englander depicts protagonists in insular Jewish enclaves confronting the rigidity of —Jewish law—against human frailties, such as a rabbi granting permission for sexual release to a pious husband starved by his wife's modesty vows. These tales synthesize mid-20th-century Jewish literary motifs of assimilation and , positioning Orthodox life as a microcosm for universal struggles with authority and desire. Similarly, the title story from What We Talk About When We Talk About (2012) tests Jewish loyalty through a "Anne Frank Game" among friends, exposing fractures in intergenerational transmission of memory and cultural solidarity. His novels extend these inquiries into historical crucibles: The Ministry of Special Cases (2007) follows a Jewish family in 1970s during the , where erasing a son's past to evade regime clashes with ancestral burial customs, underscoring tradition's role in preserving identity amid erasure. In kaddish.com (2019), the protagonist, an assimilated American Jew, inherits his late father's Orthodox prayer obligation for the dead—recited daily for 11 months—and leverages online services to outsource it, only to reclaim ritual authenticity, illustrating technology's disruption of inherited spiritual duties. Englander's revised (2012) further adapts texts to emphasize tenuous links to tradition, portraying Jewish continuity as fragile chains susceptible to breakage in contemporary exile. Across these, Englander employs humor and to dissect Orthodoxy's insularity without endorsing secular drift, as seen in stories deconstructing reverence or faith's communal narratives, prioritizing character-driven realism over didacticism. He resists self-identification as a "Jewish writer," arguing his obsessions with moral quandaries transcend ethnicity, though Jewish protagonists dominate, rooted in experiential fidelity rather than thematic imposition. This approach yields portraits of identity as negotiated , where endures not as immutable dogma but as a contested shaping ethical navigation in profane worlds.

Political and Historical Engagements

Englander has incorporated historical Jewish traumas, notably , into his short fiction to examine identity and survival. In his 2012 collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, stories such as the title piece depict contemporary Jewish anxieties rooted in Holocaust memory, including games children played simulating hiding from Nazis, reflecting intergenerational fears instilled in Orthodox communities. His education emphasized as a perpetual threat, fostering a where Jewish existence remained precarious, as he described growing up with narratives of potential recurrence. These historical engagements extend to broader Jewish textual traditions; in 2012, Englander co-translated and contributed commentary to The New American Haggadah with Jonathan Safran Foer, modernizing the Passover narrative to connect ancient exodus themes with contemporary exile and redemption motifs. Politically, Englander's most direct literary foray is his 2017 novel Dinner at the Center of the Earth, a thriller framed by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, featuring a captured spy and his guard amid events from the Oslo Accords to Ariel Sharon's coma. Englander conceived the work over nearly two decades, aiming to capture the conflict's human complexities without advancing a fixed agenda, as he stated it was not intended as a "political book" pushing preconceptions. In interviews, he affirmed a strengthened personal commitment to peace, viewing literature's role in political turmoil as fostering empathy rather than resolution, though the narrative's portrayal of mutual suffering has drawn interpretations of critiquing Israeli policies while humanizing Palestinian perspectives. Beyond , Englander has commented on writers' duties amid chaos, arguing in a 2017 discussion that preserves individual truths against ideological pressures, drawing from his shift from a insular, right-leaning Orthodox upbringing to secular inquiry. His works often contemporary issues like occupation through biblical lenses, as in a 2016 story allegorizing Israel's policies via ancient divine covenants.

Reception and Impact

Awards, Acclaim, and Commercial Success

Englander received the PEN/Malamud Award in 2000 for his debut short story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges. He also won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for the same work. In 2012, Englander was awarded the International Short Story Award, worth €25,000, for What We Talk About When We Talk About . The collection was a finalist for the 2013 in Fiction. Additional honors include a and the Bard Fiction Prize. His short fiction has garnered significant literary acclaim, appearing in anthologies such as and 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories. Englander was named one of The New Yorker's "20 Writers for the ." Critics have praised his debut collection for its inventive exploration of Jewish themes, leading to inclusions on multiple "Best Books of 1999" lists. Later works, including the Dinner at the Center of the Earth (2017), have been noted for their engagement with historical and political subjects, sustaining his reputation in literary circles. Commercially, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges achieved status, reaching its 12th printing with 80,000 copies sold by early 2000. What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank became an international , translated into more than a dozen languages. While Englander's sales reflect niche literary appeal rather than mass-market dominance, his books have maintained steady publication and adaptation interest, including stage versions of his stories.

Criticisms, Controversies, and Viewpoint Debates

Englander’s short fiction has drawn criticism for its frequent use of high-concept scenarios involving Orthodox or traditional in absurd or profane contexts, which some reviewers contend risks reducing complex identities to or "Jewish minstrelsy" lacking the outrage or depth found in predecessors like or . For instance, stories such as "Peep Show" and "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges" have been faulted as contrived and overly reliant on broad comic premises, evoking underdeveloped Woody Allen-esque ideas rather than probing deeper psychological or cultural tensions. Similarly, "The Tumblers" has been critiqued for , with its Holocaust-era acrobats portrayed through mock-naïveté that over-explains and dilutes the horror into , echoing but paling against Isaac Bashevis Singer's parables. In "Sister Hills," Englander’s explicit political analogies—equating disputes to biblical sibling rivalries—have been seen as undermining narrative ambiguity, turning a potential into didactic commentary on territorial claims. Critics argue this approach simplifies the settlement controversy, problematizing compatibilist views that reconcile religious tradition with modern statehood but without fully grappling with causal security dynamics or historical precedents. His 2017 novel Dinner at the Center of the Earth, centering on an Israeli prisoner's moral reckoning amid the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has sparked viewpoint debates over its portrayal of as a nation trapped in cycles of violence and denial. Reviewers from outlets sympathetic to Palestinian perspectives have praised its grim depiction of Israeli belligerence and sympathy for Palestinian characters, yet faulted underdeveloped figures and a reversion to conventional two-state resolutions without innovative causal analysis. Conversely, the novel's emphasis on an American Jewish protagonist's disillusionment—triggered by massacres and leading to betrayal—has elicited accusations of an overly negative Israeli mindset, with rendered as a remorseful symbol of destructive tendencies, potentially amplifying anti-Zionist narratives while underemphasizing empirical threats like rejectionism. Englander has described himself as an "Israel arguer," shifting positions fluidly in debates, which underscores tensions between his commitment to nuance and perceptions of left-leaning bias in conflict portrayals. Broader debates surround Englander’s thematic engagements with and orthodoxy, as in "What We Talk About When We Talk About ," where secular Jews face loyalty tests via a hypothetical visit, prompting discussions on performative versus intrinsic identity amid rising . Some interpret his ex-Orthodox lens as critiquing religious insularity through , while others view it as nostalgic or insufficiently critical of secular drift's erosion of communal resilience. These elements reflect ongoing literary tensions over representing without exoticizing or pathologizing it, particularly in post-Holocaust contexts where empirical on assimilation rates—such as Pew surveys showing declining observance—intersect with causal debates on cultural survival.

Personal Life and Views

Family, Relocation, and Professional Roles

Englander was born in 1970 and raised in an Orthodox Jewish family on , New York, where he attended and grew up in a close-knit, observant community alongside his sister. His parents, both born and raised in , instilled a traditional religious environment that emphasized insularity and ritual observance. He is married to a professor, with whom he has children, and has discussed the challenges of balancing fatherhood with his writing demands. After his upbringing in New York, Englander relocated to in the mid-1990s at around age 19, living there for approximately five years; this period marked a personal shift away from strict Orthodox practice toward . He attended Hebrew University in during this time. Upon returning to the , he resided in locations including , New York, and , before settling in , , , in recent years, partly due to his wife's academic career. In addition to his primary role as an author, Englander holds the position of Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at , where he teaches , and has conducted stints at NYU's international campuses, such as in . He has also served as a fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the and at the American Academy in , supporting his literary pursuits.

Evolving Perspectives on Religion, Israel, and Culture

Nathan Englander was raised in a strictly Orthodox Jewish community on , where was framed exclusively as a without cultural dimensions, enforcing rigid observance from childhood. He adhered to these practices until age 19, when he traveled to and, during his first in , violated rules by riding a bus, anticipating that never materialized, prompting a cascade of rule-breaking that marked his departure from . This experience exposed him to a secular Jewish continuum absent in his upbringing, leading him to embrace an actively irreligious life, though he later critiqued his Orthodox education as anti-intellectual and insufficiently engaging with theological inquiries that might have retained his faith. By his own account, he identifies as an atheist but resists the term, channeling former religious passion into writing rituals, such as a six-day work cycle with a rest day modeled on creation narratives, and treating craft as a surrogate belief system. Englander's perspectives on Israel similarly transformed through direct exposure, beginning with his 19-year-old sojourn where the country's Jewish diversity allowed him to feel "American" amid universal Jewishness, accelerating his religious disillusionment. Over subsequent decades, he described a "long evolution of ideas based on experience," expressing enduring affection for while adopting a critical stance toward Israeli politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as reflected in his 2017 novel Dinner at the Center of the Earth. In interviews, he emphasized shared human claims on —such as and Gazans perceiving themselves surrounded by existential threats—without endorsing either narrative, focusing instead on power imbalances, revenge cycles, and for figures like Israeli generals and Palestinian leaders, while insisting his work neither whitewashes nor betrays . On broader culture, Englander's shift from insular to broadened his engagement with as fluid and multifaceted, incorporating diaspora assimilation, anxieties, and familial dynamics in his , often contrasting rigid with adaptive modernity. His Israeli revelations underscored cultural Judaism's viability beyond religiosity, informing stories that probe identity boundaries without romanticizing loss of observance, and he credits Talmudic training for fostering critical "what if" reasoning applicable to secular storytelling. This evolution manifests in works like kaddish.com (2019), where he interrogates divine absence through digital-age rituals, blending cultural heritage with contemporary skepticism.

Bibliography

Short Story Collections

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges. New York: , 1999. What We Talk About When We Talk About : Stories. New York: , 2012. ISBN 978-0-307-95870-9.

Novels

Englander has published three novels, each exploring themes of , historical trauma, and moral ambiguity within familial and political contexts. His , The Ministry of Special Cases, appeared in 2007 from . Set amid Argentina's in 1976, under the led by General Jorge Videla, it centers on Poznan, a Jewish man from a family of historical pimps, who erases surnames from Jewish gravestones for assimilationist clients. When his son is abducted by state forces, Kaddish and his wife Lilian navigate bureaucratic horrors and personal desperation in a quest for answers, highlighting the intersection of Jewish outsider status and authoritarian disappearance campaigns that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives. In 2017, Englander released Dinner at the Center of the Earth, also from Knopf, a blending and romance against the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The protagonist, an unnamed American Jew turned spy, is held in in an Israeli secret starting in 2002, reflecting on his betrayal of a mentor-figure akin to a political leader and a clandestine affair with a Palestinian woman. Flashbacks span from the 1990s era to the 2014 Gaza conflict, culminating in a tunnel encounter that underscores failed peace efforts and personal reckonings, with the title referencing a surreal underground meal symbolizing stalled negotiations. Englander’s most recent novel, kaddish.com, published in 2019 by Knopf, examines Orthodox Jewish mourning rituals and filial duty. Protagonist Larry "Shuli" Sacks, having lapsed from strict observance, hires an online proxy in 1999 to recite the Kaddish prayer for his late father, violating traditional requirements for daily in-person recitation by a son. Two decades later, guilt drives Shuli to reclaim the obligation, infiltrating his brother's devout Brooklyn community and confronting family fractures, including a sibling rivalry rooted in religious divergence. The work draws on halakhic details, such as the year-long mourning period, to probe authenticity in faith and redemption's costs.

Plays and Miscellaneous Works

Englander adapted his short story "The Twenty-Seventh Man" into a play of the same name, which premiered on November 7, 2012, at in . The work is set in a Soviet prison in 1952, depicting the arrest of twenty-six prominent writers by Joseph Stalin's , with a fictional twenty-seventh man added among them; it explores themes of literature, persecution, and absurdity under . Published by Dramatists Play Service, the play draws directly from historical events like the Night of the Murdered Poets while incorporating Englander's fictional elements. Englander also adapted his 2011 short story "What We Talk About When We Talk About " into a play, a one-act serious examining intergenerational tensions and through a reunion of two couples—one Israeli-American, the other post-9/11 . The adaptation has seen productions including at the and, in a version updated to reference events after , 2023, at the Theatre in London in 2024, directed by . The play's dialogue-driven structure echoes Carver's influence on the original story, probing moral hypotheticals around and loyalty. Among Englander's miscellaneous works, he co-translated and contributed to the New American Haggadah in 2012, edited by Jonathan Safran Foer, which modernizes the traditional Passover text with contemporary commentary while preserving ritual elements. His nonfiction essays have appeared in outlets such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, Vogue, and Esquire, often addressing Jewish cultural themes, writing craft, and personal reflections on identity and history. These pieces, while not forming a dedicated collection, extend his literary output beyond fiction and drama into reflective prose.

References

  1. https://www.americanacademy.de/person/nathan-englander/
  2. https://www.prhspeakers.com/speaker/nathan-englander
  3. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/englander-nathan-1970-0
  4. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/8116/nathan-englander/
  5. https://pen.org/profile/nathan-englander/
  6. http://nathanenglander.com/bio/
  7. https://forward.com/life/387047/nathan-englander-opens-up-about-his-orthodox-upbringing/
  8. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/146920283
  9. https://news.northeastern.edu/2013/03/20/englander/
  10. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/novelist-nathan-englander-on-how-ritual-fuels-his-writing
  11. https://www.bupipedream.com/ac/binghamton-graduate-writes-with-dark-humor-jewish-wit/20390/
  12. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/this-week-in-fiction-nathan-englander
  13. https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/573/four-honorary-degrees-to-be-awarded-at-commencement
  14. https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/1077/beyond-borders
  15. https://lectures.org/event/nathan-englander/
  16. https://writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/news-archive/2007/08/nathan-englander-iowa-writers-workshop
  17. https://www.npr.org/2012/02/15/146920283/nathan-englander-assimilating-thoughts-into-stories
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  20. https://www.shenandoahliterary.org/621/for-the-relief-of-unbearable-urges-faber-and-faber-by-nathan-englander/
  21. https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/for-the-relief-of-unbearable-urges
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  24. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/books/review/Blythe-t.html
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  26. https://www.npr.org/2017/09/17/547560201/spies-betrayal-and-some-really-good-food-in-dinner-at-the-center-of-the-earth
  27. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/07/dinner-at-centre-of-earth-nathan-englander-review
  28. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/books/review/nathan-englander-kaddish-com.html
  29. https://artsfuse.org/69703/fuse-book-interview-novelist-and-short-story-writer-nathan-englander-is-happy-to-go-back-to-basics/
  30. https://www.vol1brooklyn.com/2012/11/26/englander-on-stage-the-twenty-seventh-man-reviewed/
  31. https://www.theoldglobe.org/pdp/22-season/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-anne-frank/
  32. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/oct/15/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-anne-frank-review-patrick-marber-nathan-englander
  33. https://www.marylebonetheatre.com/productions/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-anne-frank
  34. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/10/nathan-englander-conversation-jonathan-safran-foer
  35. https://www.amazon.com/Dinner-Centre-Nathan-Englander-author/dp/1474607950
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  37. https://www.stlpr.org/arts-culture/2012-11-05/take-five-nathan-englander-doesnt-think-of-himself-as-a-jewish-writer
  38. https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/sentimental-journey
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  41. https://www.academia.edu/2322080/Nathan_Englander_Tests_Our_Faith_short_essay_on_The_Reader_for_One_Bay_One_Book_
  42. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/174964910
  43. http://heebmagazine.com/nathan-englander/35005
  44. https://jewishjournal.com/culture/arts/books/224302/nathan-englander-interview-novels-view-israel-palestine-conflict/
  45. https://www.jewishboston.com/read/at-the-center-of-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-an-interview-with-nathan-englander/
  46. https://mondoweiss.net/2018/02/englanders-entertainment-israel/
  47. https://hazlitt.net/feature/if-youre-writer-literature-has-saved-you-some-point-interview-nathan-englander
  48. https://forward.com/culture/341683/nathan-englanders-masterful-parable-of-occupation/
  49. https://now.uiowa.edu/news/2012/07/englander-wins-oconnor-prize
  50. https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/nathan-englander.html
  51. https://www.wisconsinbookfestival.org/presenters/nathan-englander
  52. https://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/gazenglander.html
  53. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/217135/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-anne-frank-by-nathan-englander/
  54. https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/15788
  55. https://lithub.com/nathan-englander-on-his-turducken-of-a-novel-spy-thriller-love-story-meta-history/
  56. https://archive.jsonline.com/entertainment/arts/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-englanders-latest-collection-al45rti-139523403.html
  57. https://www.npr.org/2013/03/22/174964910/nathan-englander-stories-of-faith-family-and-the-holocaust
  58. https://electricliterature.com/nathan-englander-on-juggling-fatherhood-and-writing/
  59. https://thecjn.ca/opinion/letters/jewish-nomad-33/
  60. https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-thriller-nathan-englander-spies-circle-of-heartbreak-in-mideast-conflict/
  61. https://www.travelandleisure.com/nathan-englander-6751075
  62. https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/nathan-englander/
  63. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16797.Nathan_Englander
  64. https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780307958709
  65. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nathan-englander/the-ministry-of-special-cases/
  66. https://electricliterature.com/love-cant-save-the-world-or-even-israel-in-dinner-at-the-center-of-the-earth/
  67. https://www.bookforum.com/fiction/kaddish-com-by-nathan-englander-23547
  68. https://yalereview.org/article/fiction-review-kaddishcom
  69. https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=4799
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