Yakov Azriel
Current City, State, Country
Birth City, State, Country
Biography
Yakov Azriel was born in New York and made aliyah to Israel at the age of 21. He has published five full-length books of poetry in the USA, and one chapbook. His first four books of poetry were books of “midrashic poems,” that is to say, poems which choose a verse or a figure from the Hebrew Bible and bring that verse as an epigraph from which the poem then flows. Many of his poems are metrical poems in form: Petrarchan sonnets (in particular), sestinas, villanelles, haiku and ghazals.
In addition to his books of poetry, over 1,000 poems of his poems have been published in print and online magazines since 2000, including Midstream, Rattle, the Deronda Review, Judaism, Impossible Archetype, 14 BY 14, Third Wednesday, Sacred Journey, and 929. His poems have won twenty-six awards and commendations in different international poetry competitions, among them: the 2024 Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest (Second Place), a 2020 Nomination for the Pushcart Prize, the 2019 Able Muse Book Award (Honorable Mention), the 2017 Frost Farm Prize (Second Place), and the 2011 Reuben Rose International Poetry Competition (First Place). He was also twice granted fellowships from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture for his poetry, which they consider to have made a “significant contribution to the enhancement and transmission of Jewish culture.”
What is the relationship between Judaism and/or Jewish culture and your poetry?
My Jewish identity is central to who I am, and Jewish tradition informs a great many of my poems. I have written hundreds of what I call “midrashic poems,” that is to say, poems which take a verse or a figure from the Hebrew Bible and then use that verse as the springboard from which the poem hopes to leap. Some of my poems are influenced by medieval Hebrew poetry (piyyutim) and modern Hebrew poets like Leah Goldberg, as well as the stories of Rabbi Nachman of Braslav (on which I did my doctoral thesis). In terms of Jewish poetry in the English language, I most admire A. M. Klein of Canada, whom I consider as the most significant Jewish writer in the English language.
In addition to midrashic poems, I write about other themes as well.
Published Works
Shadow in the Closet (Seven Kitchens Press, 2023)
Closet Sonnets: The Life of G.S. Crown: 1950-2021 (Sheep Meadow Press, 2017)
Swimming in Moses’ Well: Poems on Numbers (Time Being Books, 2011)
Beads for the Messiah’s Bride: Poems on Leviticus (Time Being Books, 2009)
In the Shadow of a Burning Bush: Poems on Exodus (Time Being Books, 2008)
Threads from a Coat of Many Colors: Poems on Genesis (Time Being Books, 2005)
Links to Sample Works
Current Title
Education
Brooklyn College, B.A.
University of South Africa, M.A.
University of South Africa, DLitt Et Phil (doctorate)