I don't think every writer wants to be edgy -- I think most of us just want to tell good stories that cause people to feel something. When I sit down to write a new story or novel -- or when I'm awake at night pondering either -- the last thing that comes to mind is how far I can push the threshold of things. And maybe the result is something edgy or different or surreal anyway, or maybe it all ends up as terrible awful crap, but that's for some critic to decide, not for me to go in search of. I think as soon as someone starts trying to find an edge the result, more typically, is that the work comes off feeling inauthentic. We write what we write and if there's some kind of emotional truth behind, if there's some kind of empathetic response that readers get, well great. But trying to be edgy? Forget it -- I'm happy to just write what presents itself to me. In terms of Jewish writers, when you look at someone like Aimee Bender, for instance, you have someone who does not write about the Jewish experience in general but whose writing is clearly occupying a different state than most. Does her religion or culture play a role in that? Should it? Or what about Jonathan Goldstein's debut, Lenny Bruce Is Dead. It does ponder judaism and suburbia and does so in a stream of consciousness way that is certainly aside the norm -- edgy even -- but, having read the book, I can tell you that what is edgy and odd can also be confusing and difficult.

Finally, I'm not of the belief that Jewish writers need to do anything or that all of our works must somehow reflect our cultural or religious backgrounds. Writing what you know is boring and redundant. I'd rather write what I don't know, exploring worlds that aren't filled with kugel and a firm place in the upper middle class. It's not incumbent on Jewish authors to do anything but write their books and stories. It's not up to Steve Almond or Sam Lypsyte or Bernard Cooper or Marge Piercy or Scott Turow or me to constantly present a miror to our culture for the world to relish. It's fiction, after all. Who can tell the tale, then? Everyone who is already doing it. It is not a proprietary right..