Ruth Kessler
Current City, State, Country
Birth City, State, Country
Biography
Ruth Traubner Kessler is an Israeli-American poet born in Poland. Her publications include The Country of Elsewheres (Broadstone), Fire Ashes Wing (chapbook -Finishing Line Press), and over 80 poems. Her poetry has been set to music, featured in concerts and festivals, and made into an artist book and broadsides. She is the recipient of grants and residencies from NYSCA/NYFA, Yaddo, MacDowell, VCCA, and the Saltonstall Foundation. Her other writings include nonsense verse, poetry translations, short fiction, and a children\\\’s book. She lives in NYC.
www.RuthKessler.com
What is the relationship between Judaism and/or Jewish culture and your poetry?
While my personal history has always reflected quintessential Jewish experiences, for a long time I refrained from giving them voice in my writing. In recent years, however, such experiences as being a child of Holocaust survivors, growing up with antisemitism in postwar Poland, and spending my formative years in Israel (before moving to the U.S.) have been increasingly claiming their place in my work.
The collection The Country of Elsewheres explores themes of place and displacement, belonging, and memory, inspired by being an immigrant–and a perennial outsider–across three continents, countries, and languages. A manuscript in progress confronts loss and grief, focusing on second-generation Holocaust trauma. The “midrash” persona poems of The Slanted Mirror (a circulating manuscript expanding on the chapbook Fire Ashes Wings) are informed by the Bible and other Jewish texts. Even in earlier work, my Jewish heritage is often reflected in the imagery in unexpected ways. And throughout the poetry, whether explicitly or implicitly, my enduring connection to Israel–my home, wherever I live–remains an underlying thread.
Published Works
The Country of Elsewheres (Broadstone Books, 2025) – Full-length collection
Fire Ashes Wings ( Finishing Line Press, 2013) – Chapbook
Hummingbird (Leopard Studio Editions, 2010) – Limited edition artist’s book by Sue Leopard
Author Site
Links to Sample Works
Jewish Poets Collective, \\\”Baggage\\\” – https://jewishpoetscollective.com/the-jewish-poets-collective-poetry-journal/ruth-traubner-kessler/
Mediterranean Poetry, \\\”Love Poem\\\” – https://www.odyssey.pm/contributors/ruth-traubner-kessler/
AJR Haggadah Supplement, \\\”Home\\\” – https://viewer.joomag.com/in-every-generation-immigration-as-a-jewish-value/0536014001773717163?short& – (p. 103)
Video Reading
Education
Toward Ph.D. English Literature – University of Arizona
M.A. English Literature – University of Arizona
Toward M.A English Literature – Bar-Ilan University
B.A.(cum laude) English Literature – Tel Aviv University