Anita Diamant (born June 27, 1951) is an American author of fiction and non-fiction books.
["Anita Diamant." ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2015. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, 2017-09-22.] She has published five novels, the most recent of which is ''The Boston Girl'', a
''New York Times'' best seller. She is best known for her 1997 novel ''
The Red Tent'', which eventually became a best seller and
book club favorite.
[Ghent, Janet Silver (February 14, 2014).]
Celebrating the power of women and ritual: Author Diamant in conversation at JCCs
. ''J. The Jewish News of Northern California
''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...
''. jweekly.com. Retrieved 2017-09-22. She has also written six guides to contemporary Jewish practice, including ''The New Jewish Wedding,'' ''Living a Jewish Life,'' and ''The New Jewish Baby Book'', as well as a collection of personal essays, ''Pitching My Tent''.
Early life and education
Diamant spent her early childhood in
Newark
Newark most commonly refers to:
* Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States
* Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area
Newark may also refer to:
Places Canada
* Niagara-on-the ...
,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, and moved to
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
,
when she was 12 years old. She attended the
University of Colorado Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...
and transferred to
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
, where she earned a bachelor's degree in
Comparative Literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...
in 1973.
She then earned a master's degree in English from
Binghamton University
The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university with campuses in Binghamton, New York, Binghamton, Vestal, New York, Vestal, and Johnson City, New Yor ...
in 1975.
Career
Diamant started her writing career in 1975 as a freelance journalist. Her articles have been published in the ''
Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' magazine, ''
Parenting
Parenting or child rearing promotes and supports the physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the intricacies of raising a child and not exclusively for a ...
'' magazine, ''
New England Monthly
''New England Monthly'' was a magazine published in Haydenville, Massachusetts, from 1984 to 1990.
History and profile
Founded in 1984 by Robert Nylen (publisher) and Daniel Okrent (editor), it won the National Magazine Award for General Excel ...
'', ''
Yankee
The term ''Yankee'' and its contracted form ''Yank'' have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Its various senses depend on the context, and may refer to New Englanders, residents of the Northern United St ...
'', ''
Self
The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the ''self'' is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or ''selfhood ...
'', ''
Parents
A parent is a caregiver of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is the caretaker of a child (where "child" refers to offspring, not necessarily age). A ''biological parent'' is a person whose gamete resulted in a child, a male t ...
'', ''
McCall's
''McCall's'' was a monthly American women's magazine, published by the McCall Corporation, that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-for ...
'', and ''
Ms''.
Her first book was ''The New Jewish Wedding'', published in 1985, and has since published five other guidebooks about contemporary Jewish practice. Her debut as a fiction writer came in 1997 with ''The Red Tent,'' followed by the novels, ''Good Harbor'' and ''The Last Days of Dogtown''.
The latter is an account of life in a dying
Cape Ann, Massachusetts
Cape Ann is a rocky peninsula in northeastern Massachusetts, United States on the Atlantic Ocean. It is about northeast of Boston and marks the northern limit of Massachusetts Bay. Cape Ann includes the city of Gloucester and the towns of ...
village,
Dogtown Dogtown or Dog Town may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Dogtown'' (film), a 1997 film
* "Dogtown" (''The Simpsons''), a 2017 season episode
* '' DogTown'', a National Geographic Channel series
* ''Dogtown'', a 2006 television show, starring Geraldine ...
, in the early 19th century.
Her next novel, ''Day After Night'' (2009), tells the stories of four women
survivors of the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
who, in the period following the end of the war and before the founding of the State of
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, find themselves detained in the
Atlit detention center, just south of Haifa, in the
British Mandate of Palestine British Mandate of Palestine or Palestine Mandate most often refers to:
* Mandate for Palestine: a League of Nations mandate under which the British controlled an area which included Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan.
* Mandatory P ...
.
In 2014 she published the novel ''The Boston Girl'', a coming-of-age story about an immigrant girl in the early 20th century.
Personal life
Diamant is the founding president of Mayyim Hayyim: Living Waters Community Mikveh and Education Center, a community-based ritual bath in
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...
.
[Epstein, Nadine (July 2008). "Anita Diamant: A Mikveh of Her Own". '']Moment
Moment or Moments may refer to:
* Present time
Music
* The Moments, American R&B vocal group Albums
* ''Moment'' (Dark Tranquillity album), 2020
* ''Moment'' (Speed album), 1998
* ''Moments'' (Darude album)
* ''Moments'' (Christine Guldbrand ...
''. pp. 29-34, 52-55. Retrieved via ''Proquest'' database, 2017-09-22.
She lives in
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...
, is married, and has one daughter.
Bibliography
Novels
* ''The Red Tent" (1997)
* ''Good Harbor'' (2001)
* ''The Last Days of Dogtown'' (2005)
* ''Day After Night'' (2009)
* ''The Boston Girl'' (2014)
Nonfiction
* ''Period. End of Sentence: The New Chapter in the Fight for Menstrual Justice'' (2021)
Autobiography
* ''Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship, and Other Leaps of Faith'' (2003)
Guides
* ''The Jewish Wedding Now" (2017, revised edition of "The New Jewish Wedding'' published in 1985 and revised 2001)
* ''The New Jewish Baby Book'' (1988, revised 2005)
* ''What to Name Your Jewish Baby'' (1989)
* ''Living a Jewish Life'' (1991, revised 2007, with Howard Cooper)
* ''Bible Baby Names: Spiritual Choices from Judeo-Christian Sources'' (1996)
* ''Saying Kaddish: How to Comfort the Dying, Bury the Dead, and Mourn as a Jew'' (1998, Revised 2019)
* ''Choosing a Jewish Life: A Handbook for People Converting to Judaism and for Their Family and Friends'' (Revised, 2020, first published 1998)
* ''How to Raise a Jewish Child: A Practical Handbook for Family Life'' (2000, with Karen Kushner)*
Journalism
* ''Life and Death in the Nursery'' (1985)
Notes
Further reading
*
External links
*
"Holding Up Half the Sky: Feminist Judaism"by Anita Diamant on ''
Patheos
Patheos is a non-denominational, non-partisan online media company providing information and commentary from various religious and nonreligious perspectives.
Upon its launch in May 2009, the website was primarily geared toward learning about re ...
''
Mayyim Hayyim Home Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diamant, Anita
1951 births
Living people
American family and parenting writers
20th-century American novelists
Jewish women writers
Washington University in St. Louis alumni
Binghamton University alumni
Jewish American novelists
21st-century American novelists
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
American women novelists
American women non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers