Alana Zimath (she/her)

Screenshot of the title and abstract of an academic article: "Becoming Jews? Literary Reversal and Identity Expansion in Esther 8:17" by Tyler Jarvis. Abstract: "This article challenges dominant interpretations of mityahadim (“making themselves into Jews”) in Esth 8:17, which often read the phrase as anachronistic religious conversion, mere political allegiance, or fear-induced pretense. Instead, I argue for mityahadim as a literary portrayal of sincere communal and social affiliation, where Persian subjects adopt Jewish identity as part of the narrative ironies within the book of Esther. This view is supported by linguistic analysis of the hithpael verb, narrative coherence with Esther’s theme of reversal, parallels in Jewish literary tradition, Achaemenid imperial policies, and early Jewish interpretations of the book of Esther. The article thus reinterprets Esth 8:17 to show Jewish identity as dynamically capable of integrating outsiders amid cultural exchange."

Excited to share that my first article, "Becoming Jews?" is now out in Vetus Testamentum!

It's got it all:

- Persian court politics
- Questions of identity in diaspora
- And (the real crowd-pleaser) a *lengthy* discussion of the semantic range of the Hithpael verbal stem

brill.com/view/journal...

Sigrid Nunez: “New Year's Story“ A short story by Sigrid Nunez: “On the morning of the first day of the year, Nell is looking over her bookshelves while listening to a podcast.”

"She had never had trouble socializing, not even in new situations. She would have said she was good at it—adept at small talk, able as anyone to mingle and schmooze. But starting about a year ago, she had become a different person." —Sigrid Nunez, "New Year's Story"

New pod! Mike talks to Maia Kotrosits about After Transformation: A Lyrical History of Late Antiquity

Author Ellen Muehlberger on Building a Book Author Ellen Muehlberger on her path to writing THINGS UNSEEN.

My best advice for other writers: read everything and anything you want!

www.ucpress.edu/blog-posts/a...

New: Braille Resources for Reading Ancient Languages [Photo by me. Tactile graphic by Crystal Peng.]   I recently created a new section of my website, which provides educational resources for anyone who wants to read ancient Middle Eastern and North …

Today I published a new section of my website with resources for those who wish to learn, study, and/or teach ancient languages using braille. It rests on work we did over the past year to expand screen reader access to these languages through the LibLouis library. Check it out and share around!

OMG what book??!?!!!!

Maggie Millner: “Is Mary Oliver Embarrassing?” A reckoning with Mary Oliver’s reputation as an unserious poet explores how her best work has been misunderstood.

Is Mary Oliver embarrassing? Maggie Millner reckons with the poet's reputation as an unserious poet—and finds new meaning in her work.

Ideal setup

Cover of Joel Baden, “Lost in Translation,” new book published by Fortress.

First copies of the latest book:

Are other fields still like biblical studies where you can read an article that makes a number of good points but "thinks the Bible is essentially history" keeps cropping up as a problem

Okay, why not: one like, one verse from the Pentateuch that I think is a post-compilation secondary addition. Let’s get NUTS.

I’m your biggest fan