Yet from her mother, too, Kim learned to harness and relish the power of the raconteur. Chernin was also influenced by her storytelling father, Paul Kusnitz, who liked to recite Pushkin and delighted his daughter with daily “homespun tales.” Rose Chernin, another gifted teller of tales, sometimes left Kim bored with her didactic stories “about madness, revolution, the struggle to survive…” (Crossing the Border). These interests and capacities seem to have stemmed from the extended family circle of compelling storytellers.įor young Kim Chernin, one early source of inspiration for writing came from her shtetl- born grandmother, Perle, who created Yiddish tales for other women to use in their letters abroad. Yet the Marxist teachings of Chernin’s parents did not result in her later commitment to revolutionary ideologies and activism rather, she became a poet, a mystic, and an interpreter of women’s psychological experiences. As a child, she marched with her mother, helped hand out Party leaflets, sang organizing songs, and overheard weekly Party meetings. Ushering Kim into the world with that book by her side, Rose may have hoped to inspire Communist vision and activism in the adult her baby would become instead, she seems to have unknowingly augured her daughter’s commitment to and gift for writing about women.īorn in the Bronx to two fiercely committed Marxists, Kim Chernin was exposed from the start to leftist teachings and impassioned political involvement. On May 7, 1940, as Rose Chernin went through labor, she was reading a book between contractions: On the Woman Question, by Lenin’s comrade Clara Zetkin. Her work has been featured in New York Times Book Review, LA Times, Newsday and other media.īiographical Essay by Jerilyn Fisher, Encyclopedia of Jewish Women
She appeared in the documentaries If Women Ruled the World: A Washington Dinner Party and Remembering the Goddess. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Focus Magazine and Tikkun. She has been featured on radio stations across the U.S., including NPR, KQED Forum and Larry King Radio. She has appeared on Phil Donahue, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose, The Today Show and others. has won acclaim for her numerous works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including The Obsession, In My Mother’s House (Nominated for Chronicle Critics Award and chosen as Alice Walker’s Favorite Book of the Year in the New York Times, 1983), The Flame Bearers (1986 New York Times Notable Book) and the National Best Seller The Hungry Self.
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