Marjorie Tesser
Current City, State, Country
Birth City, State, Country
Biography
Marjorie Tesser is a poet, writer, editor, and educator who writes about ethical choices, the intersection of identities, and family dynamics. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, The Important Thing Is, winner of the Firewheel Chapbook Award (Firewheel Editions 2010), and The Magic Feather (FLP 2011). Her poem “April” won the 2019 John B. Santoianni Award from the Academy of American Poets. Marjorie’s poetry and fiction have appeared recently in Molecule, Cutleaf, Drunk Monkeys, ANMLY, and SWWIM. She has co-edited three anthologies, Travellin’ Mama: Mothers, Motherhood and Travel, (Demeter Press 2019), Estámos Aquí: Poems of Migrant Farmworkers (Bowery Book 2007), and Bowery Women: Poems (Bowery Books 2006), and is editor-in-chief of MER-Mom Egg Review, a literary magazine focused on motherhood. A former attorney, Marjorie was born in Brooklyn, and lives in Rockland County, New York. She has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.
What is the relationship between Judaism and/or Jewish culture and your poetry?
Judaism is an integral identity (as is feminist, woman, mother, grandmother, American, music lover, yoga practitioner) and therefore is an underlying basis to everything I write. While I’m not “religious” to some, my spirituality and views of our place and duties as humans in the universe, of family, and of ethics, are directly informed by Judaism. Additionally, I do write on specifically Jewish topics, practices, and traditions.
Published Works
The Magic Feather (chapbook; Finishing Line Press 2011)
THE IMPORTANT THING IS (chapbook; Firewheel Editions 2010)
Edited Works
Travellin’ Mama: Mothers, Motherhood and Travel; Co-editor with Charlotte Beyer, Dorsí Smith Silva, Janet MacLennan (Demeter Press, March 2019)
Estámos Aquí: Poems of Migrant Farmworkers; Co-Editor with Bob Holman, Sylvia Kelly, and Janine Pommy Vega (Bowery Books, 2007)
Bowery Women: Poems; Co-Editor, with Bob Holman (Bowery Books, 2006)
Author Site
Links to Sample Works
Video Reading
Current Title
Education
State University of New York at Albany, B.A. in Psychology and English
Brooklyn Law School, JD
Sarah Lawrence College, M.F.A.