SHANDA

Long before there was "cancel culture," there was fear of shanda, a scandal or disgrace that condemned its target to ruinous social shame. Tackling the many permutations of shame and secrecy that were central to her Jewish upbringing, Letty's new memoir, "Shanda," investigates how those profound, volatile themes are, paradoxically, disconnected and interlaced with one another. She explores the space where shame and secrecy - in both the private and public sphere - become catalysts for one another, and the ways in which secrecy haunts and shame scars.

Everyday objects and events, such as a photograph missing from an album, the shocking medical diagnosis she received five years ago, or a conversation around the family dinner table, become springboards from which Letty takes a deep dive into the most meaningful relationships and engrained emotions of her personal history. The intertwining of shame and secrecy in secluded and communal settings allows those predominant topics to function as a lens through which Letty views her life, the world of her quirky, cautious immigrant relatives, and the shame scandals that have roiled the American Jewish community, the feminist movement, and society as a whole.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin, a founding editor of Ms. magazine, is a writer, lecturer, social justice activist, and the author of 11 books, including, most recently, the nonfiction guide, "How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who's Sick" and the novel, "Single Jewish Male Seeking Soul Mate." Letty's feminist classic, "Deborah, Golda, and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America," published 30 years ago, remains a staple of women's studies curricula in dozens of U.S colleges.

A leader in many civil, women's, and Jewish causes, Letty served two terms as President of The Authors Guild, and two terms as Chair of the Board of Americans for Peace Now. She also co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus; the Ms. Foundation for Women; the UJA-Federation Task Force on Women; and the International Center for Peace in the Middle East. Currently, she serves on the boards of The Authors Guild, Americans for Peace Now, the Free to Be Foundation, Harvard Divinity School's Women in Religion Program, the Women's and Gender Studies Program at Brandeis University. Among her many honors are a Yale University Poynter Fellowship in Journalism; an Emmy Award for "Free to Be, You and Me; inclusion in Who's Who in America