U. professor receives award for book 'We Must Not Think of Ourselves'
Lauren Grodstein, a professor in the English and Communication Department at Rutgers—Camden and graduate director of the campus' Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, was recently selected as the December 2023 Book Club awardee by the "Today" show for her historical fiction novel, "We Must Not Think of Ourselves."
Grodstein said that her book was inspired by the true history of the Oneg Shabbat and takes place during World War II in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland. It focuses on archivists who preserved the stories of the Jewish people living there.
Grodstein said she first learned about and visited the Oneg Shabbat archive during a family trip to Poland and began writing the initial version of the novel after the onset of the pandemic.
"It was very dispiriting sometimes, obviously, because you're reading about this really difficult moment," she said. "But sometimes, it was just fascinating and almost like time travel. You'd read about these people … They reminded me of my own students, or they reminded me of my sister, or they reminded me of my daughter (or) they reminded me of my dad. And reading about these people made them come alive a little bit."
Grodstein said limited access to Holocaust and Warsaw Ghetto survivors caused a barrier to accessing completely accurate historical accounts. She said that certain assumptions she made based on written records were proven inaccurate when she visited Warsaw during her writing process.
Grodstein said that she hopes readers of the novel realize that the Holocaust happened relatively close to the modern day, and its history is an intrinsic piece of Jewish identity. She said that her novel is an exploration of the need for humans to speak the truth.
"The thing that I always hope when anyone reads one of my books is that it tells a good story (and) that they're transported by the story," she said. "But then if there's anything else they take from it, I hope it's that they understand the importance of bearing witness and the importance of trying to save every single human life possible."
The "Today" show recognized "We Must Not Think of Ourselves" during the show's long-running segment "Read with Jenna," hosted by Jenna Bush Hager, in which a selected book is recommended to a nationwide audience, Grodstein said.
Grodstein said she is excited to be selected among the many novels in circulation at a given time, especially considering Hager's significance in the literary entertainment community.
Additionally, she said that her role as the director of the Camden campus' creative writing master's program has allowed her the opportunity to guide students using her experiences as a published author.
Based on her own success as both an author and professor, Grodstein said that she advises students to integrate writing into their lives but to also pursue other ambitions.
"I think I'm able to just model the kind of hustle that it often takes to be a writer. I tell my students that they should feel about writing the way they feel about brushing their teeth," she said. "Like you can maybe skip it for a couple of days, but you're gonna feel pretty icky after a while. And writing for me feels like that."
Grodstein said that she aims to ensure that the creative writing master's program will connect students to agents of the publishing process, as well as support the actual development of their ideas and written pieces.
She added that she has other goals as a writer, such as finishing and publishing another book, and that she feels deeply intertwined with her students' achievements.
"There are so many publishers out there looking for smart, new ideas. So, I encourage my students to keep going, to trust in their talent — trust as best they can in the process," she said. "And to not give up, even though it sometimes feels so, so easy to give up."
