This 2025, the annual NYSWI (New York State Writers Institute)’s Book Festival at UAlbany falls on Shabbos Shuvah, the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
The obvious tie-in is “being inscribed in the Book of Life” and as President Havidan Rodriguez would say, “we are authors of our own destiny”. You might say the writing is on Rosh Hashanah, & the publishing is on Yom Kippur (to paraphrase the traditional wording).
On a deeper level, NYSWI’s Book Festival highlights & celebrates authors more so than it does books. In a Chassidic dimension, the same for high holidays, more than what we do/don’t do/say on a Chassidic dimension, the high holidays are a deep dive into who we are, our spiritual identities, our personal core.
Chassidus sees Yom Kippur as a deep dive into our essence – a day of: At-ONE-ment, more than a day of atonement for sin. Authors more than their books.