 |
Nancy Wright Beasley
Workshop: Izzy's Fire
Time: 10:00 - 10:45am
Place: Auditorium |
www.izzysfire.com |   |
Izzy's Fire - Finding Humanity in the Holocaust:
This book focuses mainly on the Ipson family's life in hiding during the Holocaust in a Lithuanian farmer's potato field. It depicts how 13 members of five Jewish families survived the Holocaust through their own ingenuity and the generosity of a poor Catholic farm family. All 13 Jews ended up living in a 9'x12'x4' underground hole as World War II raged around them. Some lived underground for months before being liberated by the Russian Army.
Beasley draws from personal interviews, research and numerous memoirs, including extensive memoirs from Israel "Izzy" Ipson, who helped his family escape from Kovno Ghetto, one of the most notorious killing fields for Jews in Lithuania. The Ipps, as they were known then, relocated to Richmond following their liberation and later changed their name to Ipson. The story has been re-created at the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond, Virginia.
|
About the Author
Nancy Wright Beasley’s seven-year journey that led to this book began when she heard Alan Zimm, a Buchenwald survivor, recite names of family members who died in the Holocaust. Beginning to understand the significance of recording survivor history, she read memoirs, interviewed survivors and discovered the miraculous journey that finally led Edna Ipson and her family from the heel of the Nazis to "the other side of hell." She tells of their journey in Izzy’s Fire.
Beasley's journalistic career spans 27 years, beginning with seven years as a state correspondent for The Richmond News Leader. She has been a personal columnist and contributing editor for Richmond magazine since 1997. Beasley has written several national award-winning columns and articles for the magazine, as well as other publications.
A recipient of a master’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Mass Communications, Beasley now teaches there.
Beasley is currently enrolled in a M.F>A. children's literature program at Hollins University. |
|
Mason Adams
Leonard Adkins
Nancy Wright Beasley
Ellen Byerrum
Susann Cokal
HelenKay Dimon
A. Roger Ekrich
Fred First
Jon Harris
Gary Jackson
Mary McManaway
James W. Morrison
Becky Mushko
Colleen Redman
Sally Roseveare
Michael Shoulders
Matthew Warner
Jack Zell
|