Books – Novels & Memoirs
B Y S O N I A T A I T Z
SONIA TAITZ is an award-winning author, playwright, essayist and advocate. A phi beta kappa, summa cum laude graduate of Barnard College, Columbia, she holds a J.D. from Yale and an M.Phil in 19th Century English from Oxford University, where she was awarded the Lord Bullock Prize. She has written extensively for The New York Times and The Observer, where she held a cultural column, and writes for The Huffington Post and Psychology Today.
Her plays have been performed at the Oxford Playhouse, Circle Rep, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Primary Stages, as well as at D.C.’s National Theatre and on National Public Radio. She is also a three-time Finalist at Louisville’s Humana Festival of New American Plays.
Sonia’s first book, MOTHERING HEIGHTS, was praised by PEOPLE, excerpted for a week in the POST, and discussed on “The Today Show,” NPR, CNN, and other national outlets. Oprah Winfrey highlighted a section in O Magazine; this excerpt is listed in numerous anthologies and was featured in a PBS special on love, narrated by Anna Deveare Smith.
IN THE KING’S ARMS, a novel, was praised by The New York Times Book Review, featured in The Jewish Book World, and nominated for the Sami Rohr Prize in Fiction. ForeWord Reviews placed Sonia Taitz “in the province of the best poets, playwrights, and novelists.” Legendary critic, essayist, and editor of Headbutler.com, Jesse Kornbluth compared Sonia (and this book) to the best of Evelyn Waugh and Philip Roth.
THE WATCHMAKER’S DAUGHTER, a memoir, was highlighted in Vanity Fair (“Fanfair”), People Magazine, The Readers’ Digest (which placed it on its “Can’t-Miss” List), The Chicago Tribune, and many others. The American Library Association nominated the book for its Sophie Brody Medal, for a work that enhances understanding of the Jewish-American experience.
Her second novel is called DOWN UNDER, which tells the story of a famous actor’s fall from grace, and the long-lost love he hopes will save him. Though stylistically different from her previous work, its wildly romantic and intercultural themes will be familiar to her readers. The book has been widely praised, by magazines such as Vanity Fair, and authors such as Jillian Medoff and Jesse Kornbluth, who says: “ No one knows more about what she calls ‘emotional kamikazes’.”
Sonia Taitz’s latest novel, GREAT WITH CHILD, is the story of ambitious, driven Abigail Thomas. Up for partnership at a prestigious law firm, she is thrown by an accidental pregnancy that threatens to upend her life. Witty, warm, and wise, this novel confronts the true meanings of love, morality, and duty. Foreword Reviews calls it “A fresh look at family…full of beautifully spun sentences and marvelous imagery,” Caroline Leavitt, author of New York Times Bestselling Cruel Beautiful World calls it “enchanting,” and Lilith Magazine praises its “wit, humor, and soul.”
