An Hour in Paradise

(W.W. Norton & Company 2003)

by Joan Leegant, M.F.A. in Writing 1999, Vermont College

In her first collection of stories, An Hour in Paradise, Joan Leegant, M.F.A.1999 imbues Jewish tradition, lore, and wisdom with a contemporary and fresh edge that has earned both critical acclaim and many awards.

The New York Times (October 5, 2003) called it “an arresting new short-story collection…by a writer who knows how to avoid the perils of connecting faith and fiction.” Barnes & Noble featured Leegant in their fall 2003 nationwide "Discover Great New Writers" program. She was co-recipient of the 2004 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award for the best book by a New England author, winner of the 2004 Edward Lewis Wallant (The Pawnbroker) Award for the best book of American-Jewish fiction, and a finalist for 2004 National Jewish Book Award.

Taking its title from the Yiddish proverb “Even an hour in paradise is worthwhile,” the book features ten sharply written stories about Jewish characters both young and old, secular and Orthodox, provocative and off-beat, who address questions of faith, love, and change in settings from Jerusalem to Queens, New York, from the outskirts of Hollywood to Sarasota, Florida. A former drug dealer turned yeshiva student faces his past while visiting a dying AIDS patient. A disaffected young American in the ancient city of Safed ventures into Kabbalist mysticism and gets more than he bargained for. Three sisters, one a Hindu, one an Orthodox Jew, and one a struggling actress just trying to get by, find unexpected happiness with the help of an unseen, yet beloved, hand. A Boston rabbi whose morning minyan is visited by a pair of mysterious guests considers the possibility that they are not the mortals they seem.

Raised in Westbury, New York, Leegant graduated from Radcliffe College and Boston University Law School. After practicing law for several years, she went to Jerusalem for what was to be a six-month stay. She remained in Jerusalem for nearly three years, becoming intrigued by — and partly immersed in — the varieties of Jewish experience. Almost 20 years passed before that experience made its way into her fiction.

“I had always loved to write — as many lawyers do — but I didn’t begin to do it with any regularity or discipline until I was in my late thirties at home with two small children,” says Leegant, who became serious about writing after taking fiction workshops in her community.

“I didn't write immediately about Israel or Jewish life,” she says. “Looking back, I think that I first needed to master more of the craft of fiction writing, and do my apprenticeship, so to speak, before I could delve into material that was so close to the bone.”

After penning short stories for several years, Leegant found herself with “two very long pieces of work — I wasn’t ready to call them novels — growing on my floor that I didn’t know how to handle. I knew I wanted more intensive and sustained help in learning to write,” she recalls. The Vermont College M.F.A. in Writing program was appealing, with its low-residency arrangement that fit with her family life and part-time work, the mentor-based, one-on-one learning, and a relatively unstructured program. “You could write what you needed to write, which was important to me,” Leegant says.

The workshops and residencies on the Montpelier campus were “terrifically stimulating and exciting,” Leegant recalls. “I had the opportunity to live and breathe writing — otherwise a rather solitary pursuit — with other adults from all over the country, with backgrounds different from my own, of all ages,” she recalls. “Everyone treated you like a mature adult – there was none of the hierarchical stuff you often encounter in graduate schools – which made it easier to begin to take myself seriously as a writer, even if I knew I was not yet very accomplished.” But a low-residency program also means working solo without feedback for long periods and learning self-discipline, which more closely resembles the life of a writer, she says.

Leegant wrote most of the stories in An Hour in Paradise over a five-year period from 1997 to 2002, which included her time at Vermont College. According to Bret Lott, best selling author and M.F.A. in Writing program faculty, Leegant succeeded and even surpassed her goal. “[She] writes stories that last, stories that take root in the soul, stories that seem to have been written years ago, in a season when words and sentences mattered much more than they do today,” Lott says. 

In addition to the full-book honors, seven of the collection’s ten stories have either won or been finalists in national literary contests including the Katherine Anne Porter Prize, the Tobias Wolff Award, Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers, and the Lawrence Foundation Award. Leegant’s work has appeared in publications such as New England Review, Prairie Schooner, Crazyhorse, Columbia, American Literary Review, and several anthologies.

Currently, Leegant teaches writing at Harvard University, and lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with her husband and two sons. She is a recipient of an Artist Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and several fellowships from The MacDowell Colony. She is nearly finished with her second book, a novel set in Jerusalem that follows the lives of several expatriate North Americans.  —MARY BETH ORTH

(For more information, see www.joanleegant.com)