When I explained to Michael Wex why I wanted to take a picture of his hands, he said "sure...I mean, I'm not a tongue and toes man." And then told a story about how he lived down the block from the building that printed those Christmas cards, you know the ones with scenes painted by artists that used their feet or their mouths to paint. How he used to hang around the building, thinking that eventually one of the artists would HAVE to visit...
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Michael Wex is one of the leading lights in the current revival of Yiddish, lecturing widely on Yiddish and Jewish culture. He is the author of three books of non-fiction: Born to Kvetch, a New York Times bestseller; Just Say Nu, a book which offers more Yiddish vocabulary and support; and How to be a Mentsh (and Not a Shmuck), a happiness manual of sorts. Wex also has three books of fiction: Shlepping the Exile; The Adventures of Micah Mushmelon, Boy Talmudist; and his corrosively funny new novel The Frumkiss Family Business (Knopf). Wex was born in Lethbridge, Alberta, and lives now in Toronto.
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Ariel Gordon has two chapbooks to her credit, The navel gaze (Palimpsest Press) and Guidelines: Malaysia & Indonesia, 1999 (Rubicon Press), and this spring, Palimpsest published her first full-length poetry collection, Hump. She recently won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer at the Manitoba Book Awards. When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods and taking macro photographs of mushrooms.
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