Broner, E.M. (1930–)
Broner, E.M. (1930–)
American novelist and essayist. Name variations: Esther Broner; Esther Masserman Broner. Born Esther Masserman, July 8, 1930, in Detroit, Michigan; dau. of Paul Masserman (journalist and Jewish historian) and Beatrice Weckstein Masserman (once an actress in Yiddish theater in Poland); Wayne State University, BA and MFA; Union Graduate School, PhD; m. Robert Broner (artist); children: 4.
Pioneer Jewish feminist whose work addresses themes of motherhood, Jewish heritage, and religion, was a professor at Wayne State University; published 1st book, Summer is a Foreign Land (1966); lived in Israel (1970s); for 20 years, was one of the Seder Sisters, a group that consisted of Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, and Phyllis Chesler, among others; also wrote Journal/Nocturnal and Seven Stories (1968), Her Mothers (1975), A Weave of Women (1978) and The Telling (1993); with Cathy N. Davidson, edited The Lost Tradition: Mothers and Daughters in Literature (1980). Her story "New Nobility" was included in O. Henry Prize stories collection (1968).
See also E.M. Broner Collection (1969–1997) at Brandeis University Libraries.