Jeff Friedman
Current City, State, Country
Birth City, State, Country
Biography
Jeff Friedman is the author of ten individual collections of poems, prose poems and microfiction, including Ashes in Paradise (Madhat Press, 2023); The Marksman (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2020); Floating Tales (Plume Editions/Madhat Press, 2017); and Pretenders (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2014). He has teamed up with Meg Pokrass to write a collection of fabulist microfiction, The House of Grana Padano, published by Pelekinesis Press in 2022. In addition, he has co-translated two books of poetry: Memorials by Polish Poet Mieczslaw Jastrun (with Dzvinia Orlowsky), published by Lavender Ink/Dialogos in 2014; and Two Gardens: Modern Hebrew Poems of the Bible (with Nati Zohar and Howard Schwartz) published by Singing Bone Press in 2016.
Friedman’s poems, micros and translations have appeared in American Poetry Review, Poetry, New England Review, Poetry International, Hotel Amerika, Cast-Iron Aeroplanes That Can Actually Fly: Commentaries from 80 American Poets on their Prose Poetry, Dreaming Awake: New Contemporary Prose Poetry from the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, Flash Fiction Funny, Flash Nonfiction Funny, Fiction International, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry, Contemporary Surrealist and Magical Realist Poetry, The New Republic, Best Microfiction 2023, 2022, and 2021, and numerous other literary magazines and anthologies.
He has received an NEA Literature Translation Fellowship, two individual artist grants from the New Hampshire Arts Council and many other awards. He taught creative writing at Keene State College for twenty-five years and earned an Excellence in Teaching award and a Performance Teaching Award. He was a core faculty member in the MFA Program in Poetry Writing at New England College for nine years. He now teaches private workshops on Zoom. Jeff Friedman lives in West Lebanon, New Hampshire with artist Colleen Randall and their dog Ruby.
What is the relationship between Judaism and/or Jewish culture and your poetry?
Throughout my entire writing career, I’ve written midrashic poems and stories. The rhythms of my poetry come out of biblical verse, and my stories are formed and influenced by the concision of the narratives in Genesis and other books of the Bible. I’ve also written quite a bit about my particular Jewish experience growing up in St. Louis, Missouri. In addition, my work is infused with Jewish humor, influenced by Jewish comic writers and Jewish comedians.
Published Works
Poetry
Ashes in Paradise (Madhat Press, Fall 2023)
The Marksman (Carnegie Mellon University Press, Fall 2020)
Floating Tales (Plume Editions/Madhat Press, 2017)
Pretenders (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2014)
Working in Flour (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2011)
Black Threads ( Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2007)
Taking Down the Angel (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2003)
Scattering the Ashes (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1998)
The Record-Breaking Heat Wave (BkMk Press at University of MO-Kansas City, 1986)
Collaborative Books
The House of Grana Padano by Jeff Friedman and Meg Pokrass (Pelekinesis Press, 2022)
Translations
Two Gardens: Modern Hebrew Poems of the Bible, cotranslated with Nati Zohar (Singing Bone Press, 2016)
Memorials: A Selection by Mieczslaw Jastrun, cotranslated with Dzvinia Orlowsky (Dialogos Press, 2014)
Author Site
Links to Sample Works
Video Reading
Current Title
Education
Macalester College, B.A. in English Literature
University of Missouri, M.A. in English Literature
University of Iowa, M.F.A. in Poetry