Efrem Sigel

Background

About Efrem Sigel

My present activities include writing novels, short stories, essays, memoirs and articles about education, as well as pro bono consulting. As a project coordinator on the education committee of the Harvard Business School Club of NY/Community Partners, I supervise projects to help education nonprofits. As a board member of Futures and Options, I'm involved in helping locate paid internships for young people from underserved neighborhoods. My recent OpEd in the New York Daily News, entitled "Look Beyond Stuyvesant," features interviews with principals of five highly successful high schools where enrollment is heavily black and Latino. A previous OpEd,"Better School Reform," draws on extensive research into NYC schools in underserved neighborhoods like East Harlem. My most recent OpEd, about criminal justice reform in New York, highlights two innovative nonprofits helping young men released from prison. The full text of appears on my blog at: https://efremsigel.blogspot.com/ A shorter version (no photos) is in the Daily News, Oct. 7, 2019: I started and sold two business publishing companies in partnership with my wife, Frederica. Since I've published 30+ short stories and essays in Antioch Review, Nimrod, Xavier Review, the Jerusalem Post, The Journal, The MacGuffin, etc.(Under Publications, a partial list is available.) My second novel, THE DISAPPEARANCE, came out in 2009 from The Permanent Press, details at Favorable reviews have appeared in Publishers Weekly, Booklist, People Magazine and many book blogs. My third novel, MAX ON TRIAL, is complete and ready for publication in 2020. My nonfiction memoir, JUROR NUMBER 2: THE STORY OF A MURDER, THE AGONY OF A NEIGHBORHOOD, is based on my experience as a juror in a murder trial, and my subsequent investigation of the East Harlem neighborhood where the perpetrator, the key witnesses and the victims all grew up. It is due in summer 2020. I've also taught creative writing in the OLLI program at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, MA, and have tutored adults in reading and math through New York Cares.