Joseph Skibell is no stranger when it comes to accolades and awards. Recently, his novel A Curable Romantic won the prestigious Sami Rohr Choice Award (which comes with a $25,000 grand prize). So how do you top that honor? You watch your hit novel A Blessing on the Moon get turned into an opera.

Skibell, composer Andy Teirstein, and artistic/managing director Mary-Louise Albert collaborated for A Blessing on the Moon: The Color of Poison Berries, which will open (as part of the Chutzpah! Festival) on February 11th at The Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre. The Warsaw Village Band (a seven-piece Polish folk group) will perform the magical surrealist tale of Chaim Skibelski, a wanderer in search of the afterlife after being brutally murdered by a German solider during Polish wartime.

You can check out the Warsaw Village Band performing a preview of A Blessing on the Moon: The Color of Poison Berries on February 6th at NYC’s (Le) Poisson Rouge. Come if you can! And in the meantime, you can read an excerpt from Skibell’s award-winning novel below.

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