Celia Dropkin

Biography

Celia Dropkin was an influential Yiddish poet. Born in Eastern Europe, she received both a traditional Jewish and a secular education, and emigrated to New York in 1912, at the age of 25. Dropkin’s only poetry collection, In Heysn Vint (In a Hot Wind), established her as one of modern Yiddish’s major poets, and she was known in particular for her explicitly erotic lyrics, which influenced a generation of Yiddish writers.

Published Works

The Acrobat: Selected Poems of Celia Dropkin, translated from Yiddish by Faith Jones, Jennifer Kronovet, and Samuel Solomon. Foreword by Edward Hirsch (Tebot Bach, 2014)

Links to Sample Works

• PaknTreger, “Why Read Celia Dropkin?” by Faith Jones (with Dropkin’s poem “The Acrobat”)
• Gulf Coast, “Invisible Desire: Celia Dropkin (1888 – 1956)” by Yerra Sugarman
• Yiddishkayt, “Celia Dropkin,” with audio of Dropkin reciting her poem “ווייַס ווי דער שניי (White as Snow)”

Languages of Publication(s) and Poets Translated

Yiddish

Subject Matter

Death, Gender, Love, Misogyny, Sex, Sexuality, Yiddish Language & Yidishkayt, Feminism.

Profile created by Daniel Kraft.