Please join Israeli author Iddo Gefen in conversation with Elisa Albert, for a discussion on storytelling, resilience, and identity in a time of rising global challenges. Gefen will reflect on the role of literature in creating structure in an uncertain world, his experience as an Israeli writer in the U.S. following October 7 and navigating the changing landscape for Jews. He will also discuss his latest novel, Mrs. Lilienblum’s Cloud Factory and share updates on the upcoming film adaptation of a short story from his award-winning collection, Jerusalem Beach, to be directed by Charlie Kaufman and featuring Ryan Gosling. 

Born in Tel Aviv in 1992, Iddo Gefen is the winner of the 2023 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. He is pursuing a PhD in cognitive neuroscience at Columbia University, exploring the intricate relationship between narrative and understanding, human memory and decision making, and how stories shape thought and influence the brain. 

Elisa Albert teaches creative writing at Columbia and is the author of the novels Human Blues, After Birth, The Book of Dahlia, and the short story collection How This Night Is Different. A decade’s worth of her nonfiction was recently collected in The Snarling Girl and Other Essays.