What is Yetzirah?

Mission

Yetzirah is a nonprofit literary organization dedicated to fostering and supporting a community space for Jewish poets, nourishing writers and readers of Jewish poetry now and for generations to come.

Vision

Just as God is said to have spoken the world into being, we believe in the transformative power of language. In Yetzirah, the World of Formation, we create our art from the world around us, a world enriched and informed by our connections with each other. These notions of formation and connection—exploring the past, present, and future of Jewish poetry—are essential to our mission.

Through regular gatherings in-person and online, as well as an annual summer retreat, we further strengthen these connections, encouraging the energy and inspiration generated from our collective experiences, creativity, and wisdom.

As we are bolstered as much by the differences among us as the commonalities we share, Yetzirah welcomes any and all poets who identify as Jewish.

And we welcome poetry lovers of all traditions to attend our readings, workshops, discussions, and events, as we believe that the more members of all communities can learn about Jewish poetry and Jewish culture, the more likely those individuals will be to push back against detrimental assumptions and antisemitism.

Programs & Resources

    Yetzirah’s online reading series 

    • Featuring some of today’s most exciting Jewish voices in poetry, emerging and established, from around the U.S. and abroad
    • We’ve also partnered with a number of Jewish organizations for events online and in-person, including the Jewish Book Council, Lilith Magazine, the Yiddish Book Center, JBI (Jewish Braille International), Central Synagogue in NYC, Ayin Press, Ritualwell, and the Jewish Theological Seminary.

    Yetzirah Book Club

    • With a deep dive into four poetry collections; talks by authors, scholars, and translators; and opportunities for discussion, we invite readers to join us in savoring and celebrating an expansive range of Jewish poetry.

    Yetzirah Workshops

    • Opportunities to study with some of today’s most dynamic poets, scholars, translators, theologians, and teachers.
    • Our workshops are first offered live online via zoom.
    • Most of our courses are then recorded and available asynchronously; so you can learn with our faculty any time.

    Annual in-person Jewish Poetry Conference 

    • Keynote speakers: Alicia Ostriker, Eleanor Wilner, Edward Hirsch
    • Generative workshop faculty: Dan Bellm, Sharon Dolin, Dana Levin, Jess Greenbaum, Rodger Kamenetz, Ilya Kaminsky, Jacqueline Osherow, and Victoria Redel
    • Structured as an egalitarian community, our conference supports writers at all levels of their careers
    • The Dayenu Cohort offers generative off-campus workshops, and opportunities to be a part of Yetzirah’s community, to writers of all levels of experience and traditions
    • Afternoon and evening events are open to the public

    Our website serves as a robust virtual resource providing:

    Future Offerings

    • Regional Chapter Program
    • Expanded mentorship offerings
    • A Yetzirah book prize for a first or second book by a Jewish poet
    • A scholarly winter conference focused around exploring Jewish texts, traditions, and history through the lens of literature

    History & Inspiration

    Partner Organizations

    Yetzirah was first conceived of in 2017, when Jessica Jacobs began work on a collection of poems in conversation with the Torah and surrounding texts. When she sought out other Jewish poets from whom she might learn and draw inspiration, she was surprised by how difficult it was to find them and their work.

    While she continued to pursue this study and writing, a series of terrifying antisemitic attacks occurred throughout the country, including the white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville and the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. As a result, more than half of Jewish respondents to a 2020 Pew Research poll said that “as a Jewish person in the United States” they felt less safe than they did five years ago. As she reached out to Yetzirah’s potential future community members, she heard often from Jewish poets how their MFA and PhD cohorts and professors often discouraged them from writing work that was “too Jewish” and, even once they’d left those programs, how they’d felt similar prejudice from their colleagues.

    Inspired by organizations like Cave Canem and Kundiman, Jessica founded Yetzirah to welcome and support Jewish poets of all backgrounds, at all levels of their writing careers. To this end, offerings include both mentorship opportunities for emerging writers, as well as programs of fellowship and support for more established writers. We also work to feature a diverse array of poets, including Jews of color, Jews of all denominations, Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, and LGBTQIA+ Jews.

    Our annual summer conference is modeled in part on the Hindman Settlement School’s Appalachian Writers’ Workshop, a conference where one year’s faculty member is the next year’s participant, where the conference is as much a literary resource as a supportive community, growing along with its members.

    Our generative workshops, talks, and discussion panels, explore diverse aspects of the Jewish experience, illuminating further opportunities to draw on Judaism’s traditions, cultures, and history in participants’ writing, and welcoming writers and readers from all backgrounds and at every stage in their careers.

    Along with lists of relevant publishing and learning opportunities, the Yetzirah website offers Jewish poets an introduction to and a springboard into a deeper appreciation of the tradition of which they’re a part, informing today’s poets about Jewish poets past and present, as well as Jewish texts and traditions.

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