(no-name)
Current City, State, Country
Birth City, State, Country
Biography
A journalist by training, Darcy\’s roots are in the South and she now calls New Jersey her home. Her day job is a marketing content strategist, but she turns to poetry and essay writing for a creative outlet. Her poem “I’m Ready to Rewire” tied for second place in Stockton University’s Center on Successful Aging “Flip the Script on Aging” contest.
Her poetry has been published in the Florida Bards Poetry Anthologies 2025 and 2026, Georgetown University’s Lombardi Voices, the Open Siddur Project, New Verse News, on Ritualwell.com (where she was a featured guest in its “Holding Each Other” program), in Poetry Super Highway\’s 25th & 28th annual Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) issues, Purim and Passover supplements of the Academy for Jewish Religion, Stockton University’s Diaries in Times of Crisis Anthology 2020-2022, Poetica Magazine’s Contemporary Jewish Writing 2021 eEdition, and two anthologies published by Moonstone Arts Center.
She is co-leader of a Jewish Writers’ Circle in South Jersey, sponsored by Ritualwell. She has presented poetry readings in the Word Above: Poetry Open Mic at Noyes Arts Garage in Atlantic City and in Philadelphia.
She has participated in the following workshops: 2026 Ritualwell/Yetzirah Poems of Freedom, Israel’s Writing on the Wall collaborative, Ritualwell/Etgar Keret, 2025 Sacred Poetry series at Temple Sinai in South Jersey, Lilith memoir and feminism writing, the 2023 Stockton University Murphy Writing Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway and Writing in the Pines, Moonstone Arts Center/conflict and poetry, Yetzirah, therapeutic poetry, Blue Stoop in Philadelphia, Jewish Studio Project, and 2022 Briya writing. Darcy also was selected to participate in the Poets and Scholars Writing Retreat 2022, sponsored by Rutgers’ Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice. She studies independently online with Carol Ann Duffy via BBC Maestro.
Darcy’s poem was included in a Philadelphia City Hall exhibit for the Souls Shot Portrait Project on gun violence, and her quote was included in the Embracing Differences exhibit in Sarasota, FL. Her writing has appeared in Momentmag.com, thINKingDANCE, The Times of Israel, Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, Broad Street Review, The Jewish Community Voice, Heritage Florida Jewish News, and A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year (Six-Word Memoirs). She also has had two short stories published in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.
The theme of social (in)justice runs through many of her poems, and she longs for the day where her page will finally be blank.
What is the relationship between Judaism and/or Jewish culture and your poetry?
Perhaps because I grew up in the South where our life centered on the synagogue, Judaism is a major part of my identity. I was active in USY, ORT and Hillel, and am a life member of Hadassah. I taught at the Jewish Community High School at Gratz College in Philly. I\’ve been to Israel six times (but I\’m disillusioned with its current government).
Although I now live in New Jersey, I religiously (pun intended) attend Friday night Shabbat services and am extremely involved in synagogue life. Yet I still consider myself a \”cultural Jew.\” Israeli music (particularly Ladino, Yemenite, Mizrahi) is my favorite genre. I\’m an avid Israeli folk dancer, occasionally teaching at special events (I like to think of myself as \”The Wedding Dancer\”). I am addicted to audiobooks (once getting a speeding ticket because of it) and am drawn to historical fiction featuring the Holocaust and the Jewish experience.
This is all reflected in my writing, which has touched on everything from getting a get to the mikveh. Much of my poetry deals with social justice (I\’m a core leader with Bend the Arc: Jewish Action South Jersey), and antisemitism is a recurring theme.
Published Works
Author Site
Links to Sample Works
Poetry Superhighway: 25th Annual Yom HaShoah Poetry Issue, “The Cactus”–https://www.poetrysuperhighway.com/psh/25th-annual-yom-hashoah-holocaust-remembrance-day-poetry-issue/#Grabenstein
Ritualwell.com, \”Abun-dance\”–https://ritualwell.org/ritual/abun-dance/
The Open Siddur Project, \”RainBows and Arrows\”–https://opensiddur.org/prayers/lunisolar/commemorative-days/yom-haqeshet/rainbows-and-arrows-a-prayer-poem-by-darcy-grabenstein/
Current Title
Education
Bachelor\’s in Journalism, University of Florida