Lauren Watel
Biography
Lauren K. Watel’s debut book, a collection of prose poetry entitled Book of Potions (potion = poem + fiction), was awarded the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry, selected by Ilya Kaminsky and published by Sarabande Books. Her poetry, fiction, essays and translations have appeared widely, including in The Paris Review, The Nation and The New York Review of Books. Her work has won prizes from Prairie Schooner, Writer’s Digest, Poets and Writers, MomentMagazine-Karma Foundation and Mississippi Review. She was awarded a Visiting Artist residency at the American Academy in Rome, a Distinguished Fellowship at Hambidge Art Center and a residency at Art Farm at Serenby. Her prose poem honoring Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was set to music by Pulitzer-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, and the piece premiered at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 2021. She was named a 2025 One Story Literary Debutante. She earned an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Hollins College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Women’s Studies from Emory University. A native of Dallas, TX, she currently lives in Decatur, GA, home of the intrepid Decatur High School Marching Band.
What is the relationship between Judaism and/or Jewish culture and your poetry?
My extended family is Jewish, but for whatever reason my parents didn’t join our local synagogue. I was aware we were Jewish, but I wasn’t educated in the tradition and knew little about it. We sometime celebrated holidays, but we also had a Christmas tree and Easter baskets. I imagine my parents must have wanted to blend in, like many in that generation, so our Jewishness was recessed. Not entirely hidden, but not advertised, as it were. From my parents I inherited both a sense of pride and a sense of shame about Judaism. Even now I\’m not sure what the relationship is between Judaism and my life, so I\’m even more unsure about the relationship between Judaism and my poetry. Apologies.
Published Works
Book of Potions(Sarabande Books, 2025)
Links to Sample Works
- JMWW, “We’re Marching”
- Narrative, “The Apocalypse Has Happened”
- New York Review of Books, “The Island”
