Author Series at a Jewish Deli: A Delicious Idea

What an honor it was to have Richard Reeder ask me to give an Author

That’s me and Heidi celebrating after the presentation.

Night Presentation last Monday at the Chicago Jewish Author Literary Series! Richard is the creator and coordinator of the series, and I’d been hearing about it for years. A well-respected (yet casual) gathering, the literary series meets monthly at Max and Benny’s Deli Restaurant in Northbrook and welcomes listeners to come and nosh during the presentation.

I was joined at the front table by Heidi Reeves, a writer in the class I lead at the Chicago Cultural Center. One of 12 children, Heidi was born and raised in Chicago’s south side. She read a poignant – and fun – essay she’d written about her brother, and when she looked up, laughed and proclaimed that “he was the dickens!” the crowd – about 70 people in all – laughed right along.

Heidi is also a graduate of the online Beth Finke Memoir Teacher MasterClass I put together to show others how to organize and lead memoir-writing classes on their own. Heidi started a brand-new memoir-writing class at the Blackstone Branch of the Chicago Public Library earlier this month. The class is already a huge success, and Monday night she and I shared stories with the audience of the merits of writing – and teaching – memoir.

Friends were there from the north suburbs, the western suburbs, and the

Signing books.

city. I was thrilled when so many stood up to ask questions afterward – that gave me the opportunity to introduce them to the crowd. Nancy Faust, the White Sox organist who taught me to love baseball – and life – again shortly after losing my sight was there. Dovie Horvitz asked a question about how I use a talking computer to edit, and that gave me the opportunity to tell the audience about Educational Tape Recording for the Blind, the non-profit organization her mother started when Dovie’s little sister, who had a serious visual impairment, wanted to attend the neighborhood high school back in the early 1960s and needed her textbooks recorded to graduate. Patty O’Machel had a question, too, and that let me tell the audience about how Patty’s high school daughter, who uses a wheelchair, inspired Patty to launch a new business last year. Educating Outside the Lines hopes to expand disability awareness curriculum in schools.

The show-stopper came at the end of the Q&A, when a man asked if the writers in our classes only write prose. “Do any of them write poetry?” I had to think for a second, and just as I turned Heidi’s way for inspiration, a familiar squeaky voice piped up in the audience. “Beth! Me! Bindy!” Bindy Bitterman, who happens to be a friend of Dovie (Chicago is a small big city!) was one of many writers from my classes who were kind enough to show up for Monday’s event. And yes, Bindy writes poetry. Limericks, to be specific.

“You have one to share?” I asked, and with that, Bindy bounded right up front. “I have one memorized!” she announced. She started right in, and when the last line ended with the word “Schlemiel,” the audience burst into laughter and applause.

And that is when Richard Reeder, the very wise organizer of the event, popped up and ended the presentation. On a high note.

Guess it all just goes to show: everybody has a story to tell, right?! Huge thanks to all of you who made the long trek to Northbrook last Monday, and to you lucky ducks who live near Max and Benny’s and stopped in, too. Also big thanks to my husband Mike Knezovich for carting copies of Writing Out Loud to sell after the show. Max and Benny’s treated both Mike and me to a Reube so huge we are still noshing on it today. What can I say? The entire evening was, well…delicious.