Both through her writing and through her work as founding president of Mayyim Hayyim, Anita Diamant has breathed new life into Jewish midrash and rituals. Diamant graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1973 and earned a master’s in English from SUNY Binghamton in 1975. She then began working as a freelance journalist for the Boston Globe, Parenting, McCall’s, and Ms., among others. In 1985, shortly after her wedding, she published her first book, The New Jewish Wedding, which blended explanations of traditional practices with a modern viewpoint. More books on Jewish ritual followed, such as The New Jewish Baby Book and Living a Jewish Life. In 1997 Diamant published her first novel, The Red Tent, a retelling of the story of the women of Genesis, focusing on Dinah. Over time, the novel became wildly popular and inspired a TV miniseries in 2014. Other novels, such as 2009’s Day After Night and 2014’s The Boston Girl, explore Jewish women’s history from within British displaced person’s camps to American settlement houses. In 2004 Diamant became founding president of Mayyim Hayyim, a ritual bath and community center that works to reclaim the mikveh tradition for modern Jewish women.