For Immediate Press Release

Founder and Editor, Colin Mustful
editor@historythroughfiction.com
historythroughfiction.com
651.788.0055

Minneapolis, MN, April 5, 2023

History Through Fiction, an independent press located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is excited to announce the signing of author Eric Z. Weintraub.

Eric Z. Weintraub is a Los Angeles-based writer who comes from a family of filmmakers, writers, and educators. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Mount St. Mary’s University where he wrote his debut novel South of Sepharad (History Through Fiction, 2024). His short fiction has appeared in Tabula Rasa Review, Halfway Down the Stairs, The Rush, and elsewhere. His novella Dreams of an American Exile won the 2015 Plaza Literary Prize and was published by Black Hill Press. His short story collection The 28th Parallel was a finalist for the 2021 Flannery O’Connor Award in Short Fiction. When not writing fiction, Eric profiles true stories of complex medical cases where he works at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Weintraub’s novel, South of Sepharad, shares the history of the 1492 Expulsion of Jews from Spain as seen through the eyes of Vidal ha-Rofeh, a Jewish physician devoted to his faith and his patients. Beginning shortly after Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand conquer Granada and issue the Alhambra Decree, an order expelling all Jews from their kingdoms under penalty of death unless they agree to convert to Catholicism, South of Sepharad exposes readers to a painful but important part of Jewish history. When faced with the decision to convert or flee, Vidal and his family join a caravan of Jews on an uncertain journey across the sea. Meanwhile, Vidal’s oldest daughter stays behind hoping for a safe future as a Jewish Converso. Throughout the story, Vidal holds tightly to his faith, his family, and his integrity all while confronting the grief of the past and the harsh realities of forced exile. 

Weintraub becomes History Through Fiction’s seventh author. His novel, set for release early next year, will be the second History Through Fiction novel that features a lesser-known Jewish history, the first being My Mother’s Secret by Alina Adams and released in 2022. Founded in 2019 by author and historian Colin Mustful, History Through Fiction publishes novels that combine elements of fiction and nonfiction in order to tell stories that are both entertaining and educational. By publishing well-written, compelling historical novels, books by History Through Fiction bring history to life while also acting as important historical resources.   

For more information, or to schedule an interview, please contact the editor at: editor@historythroughfiction.com.

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