Stories by Yenta Mash
Translated by Ellen Cassedy
Northern Illinois University Press, 2018
A Yiddish Book Center Translation
“Inspiring” – Ruta Sepety
“Rich” – Irena Klepfisz
Oedipus in Brooklyn
and other stories by Blume Lempel
Winner, Modern Language Assn.
Fania & Yaakov Leviant Memorial
Prize in Yiddish Studies
Translated by
Ellen Cassedy &
Yermiyahu Ahron Taub
Mandel Vilar Press & Dryad Press
“A splendid surprise.” – Cynthia Ozick
“…a remarkable achievement…” – Kirkus Reviews
Awards and Reviews
• MLA Fania & Yaakov Leviant Memorial Prize
in Yiddish Studies
• Grub Street National Book Prize for Nonfiction
• Towson Prize for Literature
• Prakhin International Literary Foundation Award
• Silver Medal in History, ForeWord Reviews
• Best Book Award, Assoc. for the Advancement of Baltic Studies
• Shortlist, William Saroyan International Prize for Writing
• Yiddish Book Center Translation Prize
• PEN/Heim Translation Award
National Geographic says: Visit Vilnius, and read We Are Here before you go!
“In the Cauldron,” a review by Christopher R. Browning
“Cassedy resists Lithuanian attempts to place Jewish and Lithuanian suffering ‘side by side’….She attempts to know and comprehend rather than judge.”
Book Review: We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust, by Philip K. Jason
Jewish Book Council
“Brilliantly balanced, totally engaging, and constantly penetrating.”
Book Review: We Are Here, by Sean Martin
American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies
“Unusually engaging…a model for the study of interethnic relations.”
Beautiful Hills of Brooklyn
Ellen’s award-winning play, Beautiful Hills of Brooklyn, celebrates the spare beauty of a small but important life. It was adapted into a short film that won 18 festival awards and qualified for an Academy Award nomination.
“After my great-aunt Jessie died,” Ellen writes, “I discovered a diary she’d kept and found myself mesmerized. I wanted her voice to be heard.”