Nextbook

Elisa Albert
Fiction Editor, Nextbook.org
Elisa Albert is the author of a novel, The Book of Dahlia, and a collection of stories, How This Night is Different, both published by Free Press/Simon & Schuster. She studied creative writing at Brandeis University and holds an MFA in fiction from Columbia. Her fiction and essays have appeared in Washington Square, Esquire, Pindeldyboz, and in the anthologies Body Outlaws, The Modern Jewish Girl's Guide To Guilt, and How To Spell Chanukah. She is an editor-at-large of Jewcy and an adjunct assistant professor of writing at Columbia.

India Amos
Art Director
Before joining Nextbook, India Amos was a senior designer at St. Martin's Press and Neuwirth and Associates, and managing editor of Seven Stories Press and PEN America, the literary journal of PEN American Center. From 1999 to 2001 she was webmaster of poets.org, the website of the Academy of American Poets, and for the three preceding years she was a program associate at the same organization, administering poetry awards and designing the quarterly journal. From 1994 to 1996, she was a program coordinator at PEN American Center, directing the visiting writers program and administering emergency funds to writers in need. She is production manager of Bloom and a design editor of jubilat, both literary journals.

Matthew Brogan
Program Consultant
From 1998 to 2003, Matthew Brogan served as executive director of Seattle Arts & Lectures. During his tenure, he expanded the organization's Writers in the Schools program from four to twelve schools, and created three new programs: an annual poetry series; The Wednesday University, a continuing education program in the humanities; and Teachers as Scholars, a professional development program in literature and the humanities for k-12 teachers.

Before joining Seattle Arts & Lectures, Matt served for five years as program director at the Academy of American Poets, where he helped develop National Poetry Month, the Online Poetry Classroom, and the Poetry Book Club. From 1991 to 1993, Matt was director of literary performances at Printers Inc. bookstore in Palo Alto. He holds an M.A. in English from Tufts University and has taught English, history, and philosophy at Tufts, Harvard, and the University of California, Berkeley. His poems have appeared in Antioch Review, Chelsea, Columbia, Denver Quarterly, Verse, and other literary magazines.

Jeremy Dauber
Program Consultant
Jeremy Dauber is the Atran Assistant Professor of Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture at Columbia University. He graduated from Harvard College in 1995 summa cum laude and did his doctoral work at Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He is the author of Antonio's Devils: Writers of the Jewish Enlightenment and the Birth of Modern Jewish Literature, published by Stanford University Press. He directed the National Yiddish Book Center's "Great Jewish Books" project and lectures at the 92nd Street Y and in other venues around the country. He writes a column on television and movies for csmonitor.com that was recognized by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in 2003.

Marylee Raymond Diamond
Director of Finance and Administration
Before joining Nextbook, Marylee Raymond Diamond served as the chief financial officer of Literacy Partners and of the Coalition for the Homeless, with responsibility for finances and administrative operations including human resources, facilities, technology, telecommunications, and strategic planning. Prior to that, she worked in New York City government, as a bureau chief in the Office of the Auditor General, director of citywide audit implementation in the Mayor's Office of Operations, and deputy director of the Budget Office of the Department of Parks and Recreation. A former VISTA volunteer, she holds degrees in sociology from Rivier College and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Diana Fishbeyn
Program Associate
Prior to joining the Nextbook team, Diana Fishbeyn worked briefly for Keren Keshet - The Rainbow Foundation, where she assisted the future Nextbook staff in relocating offices and organized the new space. Before assuming her position at Keren Keshet, Diana worked for many years for Accurate Convertors, a recycling company. There she managed all aspects of the office and employees, assisted in sales, and coordinated all benefits.

Eve Grubin
Poetry Editor, Nextbook.org
Eve Grubin is the author of Morning Prayer (Sheep Meadow Press, 2005), a book of poems. Her poetry has appeared in The American Poetry Review, The New Republic, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. Her essays have appeared in various journals and anthologies, including The Veil: Women Writers on its History, Lore, and Politics (University of California Press, 2007). She is a senior editor at Lyric, teaches poetry at The New School and the City College of New York where she was also the Marvin and Edward Kaplan Lecturer in Jewish Studies in 2007. She holds a B.A. from Smith College, an M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, and she is currently working towards her Ph.D. in English at CUNY's Graduate Center.

Sara Ivry
Senior Editor, Nextbook.org
Sara Ivry has worked on the staff of The New York Times Magazine and at WBUR, a public radio station in Boston, writing news and producing interviews. She has written for The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Real Simple, Flaneur, and other publications. Sara is a graduate of Barnard College and has a master's degree in international relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Morton Landowne
Director
As director of Nextbook, Morton Landowne is responsible for overseeing all facets of the project. Before taking this position Morton spent his career in the private sector specializing in administration and marketing.

Morton has a BA from Yeshiva College and a JD from Brooklyn Law School, and served as President of Edah, a think tank dedicated to giving voice to the values and ideology of Judaism, and publisher of the Edah Journal. He also serves as vice-president of the Ohr Torah Stone Institutions of Israel, a network of institutions for Jewish Education, focusing on social justice and Jewish unity, founded in 1983 by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin. He served on the Founding Board of the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan. He and his wife, Rose, have lived in Manhattan for over 30 years and are active participants in its rich cultural life, with particular interest in the visual arts, theater, ballet, and film. Morton has contributed articles to Jewish Action Magazine and The Jewish Week.

Lawrence Levi
Senior Editor, Nextbook.org
Lawrence Levi has worked on the staff of the New York Times editorial page and as an editor at Art & Antiques. He co-wrote The Film Snob's Dictionary (Broadway Books, 2006) and has written for many publications, including the Times, Vanity Fair, The Nation, The Village Voice, Stop Smiling, and (back when) Spy. He also founded Flâneur, an online literary journal. He graduated from Vassar College.

Abigail Pickus
Program Fellow (Chicago Public Library)
Abigail Pickus has a background in journalism and Jewish literature. She was a staff writer and arts editor at the JUF News in Chicago, and an assistant editor at Moment Magazine in Washington, DC. She freelances for the Chicago Tribune, among other publications. Abigail earned a B.A. in English Literature from Barnard College, and a B.A. in Jewish Literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Jonathan Rosen
Editorial Director, Nextbook/Schocken Publishing Series
Jonathan Rosen is the author of the novel Eve's Apple; The Talmud and the Internet: A Journey Between Worlds; and Joy Comes in the Morning (September 2004). In 1990, Jonathan created the Arts & Letters section of the Forward, which he oversaw for ten years.

Jonathan studied English literature as an undergraduate at Yale and as a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. His essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, the American Scholar, and several anthologies.

Deborah Schuval
Associate Director of Public Programs
Before joining Nextbook, Debbie Schuval lived in Israel and was the project coordinator for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. She also studied Russian studies at the Hebrew University and worked as a research associate for the JDC-Brookdale Institute. She lived in Frankfurt, where she was a fellow of the Lauder Foundation, coordinating various educational programs for Jewish communities around Germany. Debbie earned a B.A. in literature and history at Yeshiva University, where she was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper and worked on several literary journals.

Joanna Smith Rakoff
Editor in Chief, Nextbook.org
Joanna Smith Rakoff's novel, Brooklyn, is forthcoming from Scribner in 2009. She has written for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Vogue, O: The Oprah Magazine, and other publications. She studied English literature as an undergraduate at Oberlin College and a graduate student at University College, London, and completed an M.F.A. in writing at Columbia University. Her poetry has appeared in The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, and other literary journals.

Julie Subrin
Audio Producer, Nextbook.org
Julie Subrin was formerly associate producer for Public Radio International's The Next Big Thing. She holds an M.A. in Russian history and a B.A. in American culture from the University of Michigan. Before becoming a radio producer, she taught writing and ESL at Pace University.

Ellen Umansky
Features Editor, Nextbook.org
Ellen Umansky has worked on the editorial staff of the Forward, Brill's Content, and the New York Sun. She studied English as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania and holds an M.F.A. in fiction from Columbia University. Her articles, essays, and short stories have appeared in numerous publications, such as the New York Times, Salon, Playboy, and the anthology The Lost Tribe.

Michele Yanow
Program Fellow (King County Library System)
Michele Yanow received her B.A. in art from Yale University and has worked in arts education, theater, catering, and Jewish education. She has been active in the Seattle Jewish community for over a decade, participating in ongoing adult education and volunteer work. Michele was a co-founder of Tree of Life Judaica & Books, the only independent Jewish bookstore in the Pacific Northwest, where she served as book and music buyer, events coordinator, and marketing manager.