- Recorded Event
“In the beginnings: Writing in Conversation with Sacred Texts” with Jessica Jacobs
February 12 @ 2:00 pm – 4:30 pm
In the beginnings: Writing in Conversation with Sacred Texts
Texts like the Torah and New Testament are often presented as not only sacred but inviolate and above reproach. For many of us, this means these texts and their difficult subject matter can feel far from us, or so close and well known we can no longer really see them. Yet it is here we find the stories and rituals, commandments and prohibitions, that—whether or not we follow a religious tradition of our own—have shaped the world in which we live. With close readings of work by poets including Marie Howe, Ada Limon, Leila Chatti, and Eleanor Wilner, in this workshop, Jessica Jacobs, author of unalone, a collection of poems in conversation with the Book of Genesis, will share how drawing on the ancient Jewish practice of midrashic inquiry, as well as the Jesuit practice of Ignatian Contemplation, can help us delve into scripture and find the stories and knowledge waiting beyond the surface layer of the page, to see both the text and ourselves anew.
Co-Sponsored by Lilith
Workshop Cost
$54—standard registration
$45—18% discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here)
*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship.
About Jessica
Jessica Jacobs, a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow, is the author of unalone, poems in conversation with the Book of Genesis (Four Way Books, March 2024), named one of Library Journal‘s Best Poetry Books of the year; Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going (Four Way Books, 2019), also one of Library Journal‘s Best Poetry Books of the year, and winner of the Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award from Southern Illinois University and the Goldie Award from the Golden Crown Literary Society, and a finalist for the Brockman-Campbell, American Fiction, Eric Hoffer, and Julie Suk Book Awards. Her debut collection, Pelvis with Distance (White Pine Press), a biography-in-poems of Georgia O’Keeffe, won the New Mexico Book Award in Poetry, was an Over the Rainbow selection by the American Library Association and a finalist for the Lambda Literary and Julie Suk Awards. Her chapbook In Whatever Light Left to Us was published by Sibling Rivalry Press. She co-authored Write It!, a collection of writing prompts from Spruce Books, an imprint of Penguin/RandomHouse.
Jessica holds an M.F.A. from Purdue University, where she served as the Editor-in-Chief of Sycamore Review, and a B.A. from Smith College. Her poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in publications including Orion, Ploughshares, Image, and New England Review. She leads workshops around the country, teaching for programs including the Fine Arts Work Center, and serves on the North Carolina Writers’ Network Board of Trustees.She is the founder and executive director of Yetzirah: A Hearth for Jewish Poetry.
