How To Write. Maybe.
Date: Jan 27, 2026
Time: 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location: Online
Category: Admissions MFA in Creative Writing Truth or Fiction? The JTS MFA in Three Acts
How to Write. Maybe.
Part of Truth or Fiction?: The JTS MFA in Three Acts
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
7:00 p.m. ET
Online
The first question prospective students ask is if writing can even be taught. The second question is, “Can I have the number of your agent?” JTS MFA in Creative Writing Director Etgar Keret and core faculty member Rachel Kadish tackle the first question (and maybe the second, but probably not) as they discuss the mechanics of writing—voice, story, revision, depression, anxiety, and coffee—and how they each approach what can be taught, and what can’t.
About the Speakers
Etgar Keret is one of the foremost writers of contemporary Israeli literature. His books have been published in some fifty languages and won numerous awards. In addition to being an internationally acclaimed virtuoso of the short story, Etgar explores a variety of storytelling techniques, including plays, screenplays, songs, animated and live-action films, comic books and choreography. Etgar is an Associate Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is excited to guide the JTS MFA program’s vision and mentor emerging storytellers.
Rachel Kadish is an award-winning fiction writer and essayist. Her work has been read on National Public Radio and has appeared in The New York Times, Paris Review, and Ploughshares; her most recent novel, The Weight of Ink, was a U.S.A. Today bestseller and recipient of a National Jewish Book Award. She has been a fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, Radcliffe’s Bunting Institute, the Bellagio Center, and the Bogliasco Foundation, a Koret writer-in-residence at Stanford University, and a Fordham Jewish Studies Fellow at the New York Public Library.
About the Series
The JTS MFA in Creative Writing is built around conversation about hard truths and strange fictions—about writing, teaching, failure, ambition, and why anyone keeps doing this in the first place. This three-part online series invites you into those conversations, with faculty and students speaking honestly about craft, community, and what it really means to commit to the work.
All programs are online. You can find more information about the JTS MFA in Creative Writing here.
