Meet Vermont playwright, novelist, artist, and educator Joy Cohen, who has spent the past 30 years exploring themes of Jewish identity and the Jewish experience. Joy will share her creative process: research, interviews, and tapping into the infinite world of imagination. She will explain how she uses historical events to develop her writing, and share from select works, including her recently published debut novel, 37, “inventive literary fiction, think Cloud Atlas meets Eat, Pray, Love.” Much of 37 takes place in 1937, a significant year leading up to the Holocaust. Joy will also talk about her screenplay, ANNA’S JOURNAL (semi-finalist, Sundance Institute Feature Film Program), which goes back and forth between Anne Frank’s experience in 1944 and a Jewish girl’s experience right after the events of 9/11. We will delve into some of the themes Joy has addressed through her creative work: how identity has been used against the “other,” and the oppression and resilience so many have experienced, across cultures and throughout history.
Joy Cohen has had a varied career as an award-winning writer and educator. Her plays include Anna’s Journal, Almonds and Raisins, and Of the Better Kind, and she is the author of three published works of non-fiction. Her primary focus has been on the arts, wellness, the environment, and social justice. In addition to writing, Joy taught k-12 Art and k-12 Science in public schools, and was an adjunct at the University of Vermont, developing graduate courses on The Creative Process, Art-driven Curriculum Development, Multicultural Arts, and Teaching for Social Justice and Equity. Born in Brooklyn and back often, Joy now lives in rural Vermont, along the shores of beautiful Lake Champlain
For more information about Joy and her work, please see joylisacohen.com
