GREEN WORLD: A Tragicomic Memoir of Love & Shakespeare with Author Michelle Ephraim in Conversation with Rachael Cerrotti

Join Michelle Ephraim, a Shakespeare scholar and tenured English professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, as she presents her new book, which explores Shakespeare’s relevance to intergenerational trauma, grief, and memory in modern Jewish lives.

Register to join us on May 5th at 10:00 a.m. onsite. Contact cajl@tisrael.org with questions.

Michelle Ephraim

Michelle Ephraim, a Shakespeare scholar and tenured English professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, is known as a “go-to” expert on how Shakespeare helps us understand ourselves and our world. Professionally and personally, her specialization is Shakespeare’s relevance to intergenerational trauma, grief, and memory in modern Jewish lives. These themes are at the heart of her new book, GREEN WORLD: A Tragicomic Memoir of Love & Shakespeare, which won the 2023 Juniper Prize in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Massachusetts Press. 

Ephraim’s reputation comes from her academic scholarship, including the book Reading the Jewish Woman on the Elizabethan Stage (Routledge), and from her publications, radio interviews, public lectures, and performances that make Shakespeare accessible and entertaining to a general audience. Her work has appeared in venues such as The Washington Post, Tikkun, Lilith, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Cleaver, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Moth Radio Hour. Ephraim’s story, “To Thine Own Self Be True,” originally performed at a live Moth event, was selected for the Radio Hour because of the compelling way she uses Shakespeare to capture the universal experience of love and heartbreak. She was a featured guest on NPR/Radio Boston’s “Brilliant Boston” series, speaking about her popular WPI course “Infected Shakespeare: Venereal Disease, Madness, Plague” and the COVID pandemic. 

Ephraim’s also known for her humorous approach to Shakespeare, which is showcased in her co-authored book Shakespeare, Not Stirred: Cocktails for Your Everyday Dramas (Penguin Random House). Shakespeare, Not Stirred was featured in The Boston Globe, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, WGBH Boston Public Radio, WBUR “Here and Now,” The Huffington Post, and other media outlets. 

As the co-host of The Everyday Shakespeare Podcast, Ephraim has an international platform for talking about Shakespeare’s insights on our modern problems. 
www.michelleephraim.com (for more on publications, media appearances)

Rachael Cerrotti

Rachael Cerrotti is an award-winning author, educator, and curator. Through an interdisciplinary practice, she explores stories rooted in the humanity of grief and inherited memory. Her flagship project, We Share The Same Sky, is a decade+ long story following her grandmother’s wartime history. She is now a fellow with The Witness Institute and New America, and hosts the Along The Seam podcast.