October 22, 2004

MINNEAPOLIS - In the newly released I AM . . ., Athalya Brenner presents fictionalized "autobiographies" of a dozen women and women groups in the Hebrew Bible, and also lets them share a conversation session . This allows her to include how these women have been interpreted-not only in the Bible itself, but also in Jewish and Christian traditions and by modern commentators. The result is a thoroughly engaging and insightful look at women, from a leading biblical interpreter who has a very creative edge to all her work.

Contents:
Preface
Introduction: Prior to Touchdown
1. War, Culture, Wives-Mothers From A to Z: We are Adah and Zillah
2. I am The Twelfth Sheep: Dinah
3. Lust is my Middle Name, I Have no other: Potiphar's wife
4. I am the Bird Woman: Zipporah
5. I am Rahab, the broad
6. The Three of us: Ruth, Naomi, Orpah
7. I am the Glow: Ritzpah daughter of Ayah
8. A Double Date: We are Tamar and Tamar
9. My Sons the Generals: I am Zeruiah sister of David
10. I am the Rat: Huldah the prophet
11. Love me tender, love me true: I am an anonymous woman from the Song of Songs
12. I am the Convener
13. Goodbye

Key Features:
. Cutting-edge of biblical studies and creative writing
. Storytelling combined with scholarship

Endorsements:

"Brenner gives voice to many of the otherwise almost-voiceless female characters of the Hebrew Bible, and she allows them to speak in their own voices.... The book draws on Brenner's own impressive expertise as well as a broad range of traditional scholarship. To these she adds imagination and creativity and by so doing takes feminist biblical scholarship to a new level. Brenner's work is courageous, insightful, and provocative." - Alice L. Laffey, author of An Introduction to the Old Testament: A Feminist Perspective.

"Disturbed by the paradox of re-creating biblical points of view through twenty-first century perspectives, Athalya Brenner has given voice-without that pretense-to biblical women. The result is widely and wildly informative, entertaining, audacious, and, yes, academic: a multifaceted pleasure to read." - Lillian R. Klein, author of From Deborah to Esther: Sexual Politics in the Hebrew Bible.

Athalya Brenner is Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Roslyn and Manny Rosenthal Distinguished-Professor-in-Residence at Brite Divinity School (Fort Worth, Texas) She is the author of The Israelite Woman (JSOT Press, 1985) and The Intercourse of Knowledge (Brill, 1997), co-author of On Gendering Texts (Brill, 1993), and compiler/general editor of the Feminist Companion to the Bible series from Sheffield Academic Press (19 volumes).

Format: Paperback, 248 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 inches. Item No: 0800636651. Price: $13.00.

To order I AM . . . please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the web site at http://www.augsburgfortress.com/. To request review copies or exam copies please call 1-800-426-0115 ext. 234.

Fortress Press