Judith Sanders
Current City, State, Country
Birth City, State, Country
Biography
Judith Sanders, an eccentric Victorian aristocrat, a French intellectual, a socialist kibbutznik, and an Amish housewife, somehow grew up in a New Jersey housing development as a red-diaper granddaughter of Yiddish immigrants. She too immigrated by traversing cultural divides to join the first class of women at Yale. She was lured into the underworld of academia, from which she emerged clutching an ornamental MA in writing from Boston University and a PhD in English from Tufts. She then spent decades talking to herself in front of students. Meanwhile her work appeared in numerous journals, including Pleiades, The American Scholar, and Modern Language Studies; on the websites Vox Populi, Humor Darling, and Full Grown People; and in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. A couple of her poems lucked into winning prizes. At long last, her poetry collection was published: In Deep from Kelsay Books.
What is the relationship between Judaism and/or Jewish culture and your poetry?
My poems, as well as stories and essays, often incorporate Jewish themes, whether explicitly or implicitly. My family heritage is the secular Yiddish left, and elements of that culture’s sensibility—irony, iconoclasm, a fierce devotion to justice, education, arts, and children—often tinge, and sometimes dominate, my writerly voice.
Published Works
In Deep (Kelsay Press, 2022)
Links to Sample Works
Current Title
Education
Yale University, B.A., Literature, 1977
Boston University, M.A., Creative Writing, 1982
Fulbright Fellowship, France 1982-3
Tufts University, Ph.D., English, 2003