Harpur College Dean Donald G. Nieman, introduced on Thursday what he called the “most anticipated event” of the 2010-11 school year, a program in which Anita Diamant would participate in a question-and-answer session with Bat-Ami Bar On, a professor of philosophy and women’s studies at Binghamton University.
About 300 people attended the event.
Binghamton alumna Anita Diamant is a New York Times best-selling author known for her first fiction novel, “The Red Tent.”
Thursday was the first time Diamant has been back at BU since she graduated with her master’s degree in English in 1975. When asked by professor Bat-Ami Bar On on why she chose BU, she said she was unsure of where her life was going at age 22 and her professor at Washington University in St. Louis recommended BU.
After obtaining her master’s degree, Diamant worked as a journalist before becoming an author.
“I wanted to be an actress, but I did not like the scene. I went to college and took classes and it was not for me,” she said. “Then I kind of thought about being an English teacher or English professor and academic life did not appeal to me and so I moved to Boston and stumbled into journalism and I could write and I had wonderful teachers and sort of learned on the job.”
After working as a journalist, Diamant wrote non-fiction pieces on Jewish living. She decided to make a transition from writing non-fiction into fiction and began work on a novel about Dinah from Genesis 34 of the Hebrew bible. She felt this was a “safe challenge.”
The novels Diamant has worked on have a historical fiction base and a Jewish undertone.
“A rabbi thought ‘The Red Tent’ was dangerous,” Diamant said during the question-and-answer session. According to Diamant, the rabbi had felt that writing fiction based around the Bible was troubling.
Diamant told the audience that her books are about “courage and love.”
Her latest book, “Day After Night” is a work of historical fiction and she said it is “a rear-view mirror of what happens after the holocaust.”
Diamant has a large fan base here in the Binghamton area.
When a rabbi from the area asked how Judaism is relevant on a campus, Diamant answered that this is the most exciting time to be Jewish in America and it is a time for experimentation.
“Stop worrying, Judaism is a tradition of joy, people will connect in college naturally … I think the kids are alright,” Diamant added.
When asked about writing, she said, “Writing is re-writing, drafts are important … Do not write alone, write in a support group.”