Joanne Grumet
Biography
Joanne Grumet’s chapbook Garden of Eve was published by Finishing Line Press in 2020. Her poems have appeared in print in journals and anthologies The Poetry Quarterly, International Haiku Day 2023, Voices Israel, Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, and The Same, as well as online at Cathexis Northwest Press, NYCBigCityLit.com, The Vital Sparks, The Closed Eye Open, One Art, The Wisconsin Review and in The Bangalore Review. In addition, her poetry can be found in the archives of the Brooklyn Museum. Joanne’s songs and poetry have twice been featured on the cable TV show The Song, out of South Deerfield, Massachusetts. You can also hear her songs at www.Reverbnation.com/summerwind
What is the relationship between Judaism and/or Jewish culture and your poetry?
My poetry relates to Judaism and Jewish culture mainly through family experiences…. grandparents, parents, children and husband. My grandparents were from Vitebsk and Bialystock. My mother was a poet and was the center of our Jewish household growing up, where we belonged to a Reformed synagogue. My chapbook Garden of Eve explores my world growing up in such a background and beyond, Eve being my mother’s name, and standing for all women. I have written about my father being Jewish in a Gentile world, the mystery of Shabbos candles, grandma’s recipes, my husband and children and our relations to Jewish culture, and one piece about anger at the position of women in traditional religion. I have also written a song “Rachel’s Lament” for which I commissioned a dance.
Published Works
Garden of Eve (Finishing Line Press, 2020)
Links to Sample Works
- BigCityLit, “Ghosts of Second Avenue”
- ONE ART: a journal of poetry, “Lessons”
- BigCityLit, “Journey of Discovery”
