a hearth for Jewish poetry

Jacqueline Osherow

Distinguished Professor, English and Creative Writing, The University of Utah

Birth Year
b. 1956
Current City
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Birth City
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Genre(s)
Poetry
Author Reading
Photo credit: Photo Credit: Raymond Stickler

Biography

Jacqueline Osherow’s ninth collection of poems, Divine Ratios, was published by LSU Press in 2023. She’s received grants from the John Simon Guggenheim and Ingram Merrill Foundations, the NEA, and the Witter Bynner Prize. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Paris Review, American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, The Norton Anthology of Jewish-American Literature, The Penguin Book of the Sonnet and many other anthologies and journals. She’s Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Utah.

What is the relationship between Judaism and/or Jewish culture and your poetry?

My poetry is imbued with Judaism, particularly Jewish text, Jewish History and Yiddish inflections as well as Yiddish humor.

Published Works

Divine Ratios (LSU Press, Spring, 2023)
My Lookalike at the Krishna Temple (LSU Press, 2019)
Ultimatum from Paradise (LSU Press, 2014)
Whitethorn (LSU Press, 2011)
The Hoopoe’s Crown (BOA Editions, 2005)
Dead Men’s Praise (Grove Press, 1999)
With a Moon in Transit (Grove Press, 1996)
Conversations with Survivors (University of Georgia Press, 1993)
Looking for Angels in New York (University of Georgia Press, 1988)

Links to Sample Works

Languages of Publication(s) and Poets Translated

Italian, Yiddush

Subject Matter

Aging, Antisemitism, Art & Ekphrasis, Childhood, Cultural Identity, Death, Diaspora, Eastern Europe, Environment & Climate Crisis, Family, Friendship, Gender, Grief & Elegy, History, Intergenerational Trauma, Israel/Palestine, Jewish Mysticism, Jewishness, Loss, Love, Marriage, Midrash, Misogyny, Motherhood/Fertility, Mythology, Narrative, Nature, Parenting, Politics, Shoah, Genocide, Torah, Trauma, Yiddish Language & Yidishkayt, Math and/or Physics, Visual Art, Feminism, Pop Culture, Mental Illness, Translation.