Yermiyahu Ahron Taub
Biography
Yermiyahu Ahron Taub is a poet and writer in English and Yiddish and a translator of Yiddish literature into English. His works of fiction are Beloved Comrades: a Novel in Stories (Quanah, Texas: Anaphora Literary Press, 2020), second place (silver) winner of a CIPA EVVY Award (LGBTQ Fiction) and named a finalist for a Foreword/INDIES Award (Religious (Adult Fiction)) and Prodigal Children in the House of G-d: Stories (London; Cambridge; New York; Sharjah: Austin Macauley, 2018), winner of two CIPA EVVY Merit Awards (LGBTQ Fiction and Religious/Spiritual Fiction) and named a finalist for a Foreword INDIES Award (Religious (Adult Fiction)). He is the author of seven books of poetry: Night Breaks in the Garret: Poems and Peregrinations/Alos-ha-layle afn boydem: lider un rayzes (Georgetown, Ky.: Finishing Line Press, 2026), A moyz tsvishn vakldike volkn-kratsers: geklibene Yidishe lider/A Mouse Among Tottering Skyscrapers: Selected Yiddish Poems (Tel Aviv: Bibliotek fun der haynttsaytiker Yidisher literatur/Library of Contemporary Yiddish Literature, 2017), The Education of a Daffodil/Di bildung fun a geln nartsis (Saarbrucken, Germany: Hadassa Word Press, 2017), Prayers of a Heretic/Tfiles fun an apikoyres (Austin, Tex.: Plain View Press, 2013), Uncle Feygele (Austin, Tex.: Plain View Press, 2011), What Stillness Illuminated/Vos shtilkayt hot baloykhtn (West Lafayette, Ind.:Parlor Press, 2008), and The Insatiable Psalm(Hershey, Pa.: Wind River Press, 2005). Tsugreytndik zikh tsu tantsn: naye Yidishe lider/Preparing to Dance: New Yiddish songs is a CD of nine of his Yiddish poems set to music composed by Michał Górczyński and performed by Malerai–Goldstein–Masecki (Poznan, Poland: Multikulti Project, 2014).
What is the relationship between Judaism and/or Jewish culture and your poetry?
While not explicitly autobiographical, my work draws on a life lived first in an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva world and later in progressive and queer communities. Instead of highlighting retreat from stricture, my texts engage the complexities of tradition and outline the project of living in multiple worlds. The protagonists navigate the challenges of interplay, taking small steps from exile into former worlds and then back again. In this dance, they confront ghosts of the past, shifts in their former and current lives, and their own commitment to living with paradox.
The Yiddish language has been a crucial tool for my literary work. As a bridge to the past and an enhancement of my literary and social present, Yiddish opens a vibrant linguistic plane, full of texture, play, and reference. However, as much as Yiddish functions for me as a source of enrichment, it is also a sign of dislocation, a reminder of rupture and fragmentation. My familiarity with the language is tempered by an unavoidable distance, by its elusiveness and my own tentativeness in its pathways. Although I persevere in creating new work in Yiddish, idiomatic expressions, case and gender agreement, and prepositions continue to daunt, despite years of usage. As a translator from the Yiddish, I take my place among the current generation of individuals dedicated to bringing gems of an extraordinary world literature to a wider audience.
Published Works
Night Breaks in the Garret (Finishing Line Press, 2026)
Prayers of a Heretic (Plain View Press, 2015)
Uncle Feygele (Plain View Press, 2015)
What Stillness Illuminated (Parlor Press, 2008)
The Insatiable Psalm (Wind River Press, 2005)
Links to Sample Works
Beltway Poetry, First Fruit and Aftermath
Sparks of Calliope: A Journal of Poetic Observation, Ignorance is Bliss
