The Central Florida Jewish Book Festival comes in February

The Roth Family Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando and Writer's Block Bookstore of Winter Park present the Central Florida Jewish Book Festival on Feb. 10 and 12. These events are part of a national network of programming sponsored by the Jewish Book Council.

This highly popular community-wide event brings together prominent and emerging Jewish writers and non-Jewish writers with Jewish interest subject matter in literature, the arts, philosophy, theology, history and current events to speak during this multi-day literary experience.

The first guest of the Book Festival is Rabbi Leah Rachel Berkowitz, author of "The World Needs Beautiful Things." Story time with the author and children's craft will be at 11 a.m. at The Roth Family JCC. This event is sponsored by PJ Library.

Berkowitz is a graduate of Brandeis University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She has written extensively for adults and teens about Judaism, spirituality, and women's experiences. This is her first book for children.

A panel discussion on historical fiction with authors B.A. Shapiro and Marie Benedict will be held Feb. 12, 7-9 p.m.

Shapiro will discuss "The Collector's Apprentice," a story set in 1922 Paris of intrigue, fake identity and murder. It is a story abaout how we see only what we choose to see, both in art and in life.

Shapiro is the author of seven novels, including the award-winning New York Times bestseller The Art Forger and The Muralist, a national bestseller. She has taught sociology at Tufts University and creative writing at Northeastern University. She lives in Boston with her husband, Dan, and their dog, Sagan.

Marie Benedict will discuss "The Only Woman in the Room," a story about Hedy Lamarr.

Benedict is a lawyer with more than 10 years' experience as a litigator at two of the country's premier law firms. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College with a focus in History and Art History, and a cum laude graduate of the Boston University School of Law. She has written a narratively connected series of historical novels-"The Other Einstein," "Carnegie's Maid," and "The Only Woman in the Room."

Tickets to these events can be purchased at https://orlandojcc.org/arts-culture/book-festival.