I Wanted Fries with That (JCC Cultural Arts & Book Series)

As a sponsor of the Jewish Community Center's Cultural Arts and Book Series, Wright Memorial Public Library is pleased to bring our patrons these speaker events.  There is no charge for the events in this series and all are virtual.  Please use the registration link to sign up to attend.

I Wanted Fries With That: How to Ask for What You Want and Get What You Need  
by Amy Fish

Jews expe­ri­ence injus­tices large and small — the restau­rant botch­ing our bagel shmear, car deal­er­ship not return­ing our calls, or find­ing bacon in the syn­a­gogue fridge. Often, we suf­fer in silence for fear of offend­ing any­one, or we kvetch too loud­ly and risk being ignored. In I Want­ed Fries with That, Jew­ish author Amy Fish encour­ages read­ers to com­plain effec­tive­ly. In her career as a uni­ver­si­ty ombuds­man, Fish has dealt with thou­sands of com­plaints — some triv­ial some seri­ous — and gained action­able insights about what works. Her sug­ges­tions will appeal to any­one who likes to com­plain or wish­es they could speak up, but aren’t sure where to start, includ­ing man­agers nav­i­gat­ing work­place dis­putes, cou­ples who argue about the same things over and over, and even com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers on com­mit­tees that aren’t work­ing. Illus­trat­ing her points with fun­ny real-life sto­ries, Fish reveals prag­mat­ic meth­ods to redress griev­ances with civil­i­ty, hon­esty, and fair­ness for every­one involved — whether you’re try­ing to right the wrongs of the world, or just claim the French fries you ordered.

Amy Fish is the Chief Complaints Officer, also known as the Ombudsperson at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. She is responsible for promoting fairness and making sure everyone’s voice is heard. Amy regularly teaches, speaks and writes about how complain effectively (i.e., stand up for yourself and ask for what you need.) Amy teaches writing workshops at the Quebec Writing Federation, Hippocamp Conference for Creative Non-Fiction and at her kitchen table. She specializes in humor writing and memoir. Amy’s work has been published in Hippocampus Magazine, Readers’ Digest, Huffington Post and several other journals.