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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260419T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260419T150000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250829T204136Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250904T121703Z
UID:10000041-1776600000-1776610800@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"'no: tongue breaks': Poetry of the Fragment" with Dan Rosenberg
DESCRIPTION:“‘no: tongue breaks’: Poetry of the Fragment” with Dan Rosenberg \n\n\n\nIn this generative workshop\, we will explore the power of poems that we receive as fragmentary or broken. The subjects of our discussions will range from the unwitting matriarch of the fragment\, Sappho\, to the violently lapidary short lyrics of Paul Celan\, to the contemporary explosion of erasure poetry as a site of both resistance and play. At the end of our exploration of several sample fragments\, we will create our own\, finding the pleasure in excavating distinct shards of beauty from a shared source text. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Dates & Cost\n\n\n\nApril 19\, 2025\, 12:00-2:30 PM \n\n\n\n$90—standard registration$74—18% discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Dan\n\n\n\nDan Rosenberg is the author of Bassinet (Carnegie Mellon University Press\, 2022)\,  cadabra (Carnegie Mellon University Press\, 2015)\, and The Crushing Organ (Dream Horse Press\, 2012). He has also written two chapbooks\, Thigh’s Hollow (Omnidawn\, 2015) and A Thread of Hands (Tilt Press\, 2010)\, and he co-translated Miklavž Komelj’s Hippodrome (Zephyr Press\, 2016). His work has won the American Poetry Journal Book Prize and the Omnidawn Poetry Chapbook Contest. \n\n\n\nRosenberg holds a B.A. from Tufts University\, an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a Ph.D. from The University of Georgia\, where he was a Presidential Fellow. He is the chair of the English department at Wells College\, where he  teaches literature\, creative writing\, and translation theory. He also coordinates the Wells College Visiting Writers Series and edits the Wells College Press Chapbook Contest. Rosenberg lives in Ithaca\, NY\, with his wife\, essayist and poet Alicia Rebecca Myers\, and their son\, Miles.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/no-tongue-breaks-poetry-of-the-fragment-with-dan-rosenberg/
CATEGORIES:Live Workshops
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260322T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260322T150000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250829T203347Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250904T121630Z
UID:10000040-1774180800-1774191600@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:“Imagining Jewish History into Poetry” with Yerra Sugarman
DESCRIPTION:The German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin\, before his death in 1940 when he took his own life to avoid being murdered as a Jew in Europe\, wrote: “There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” Urging us to recognize the complexity of historical events\, Benjamin asks that we avoid simplistic narratives celebrating progress without acknowledging the costs: the suffering and exploitation of others.  \n\n\n\nPoeticizing history requires careful and complex consideration. The ethics of transforming tragedy into poems presents a complex moral landscape\, prompting critical reflection on the artist’s function\, the audience’s experience\, and the very nature of art itself. Yet poetry can play a meaningful role in offering testimony and portraying history beyond the mere chronicling of a moment in time. It can be a conduit for commemoration; a means of bearing witness; and a way of pushing the borders of how we look at both the distant and recent past. It can also be a way of giving voice to people who can no longer speak for themselves\, providing unsaid perspectives of those who have been silenced.  \n\n\n\nThere is\, for instance\, the tradition of documentary poetry that places lyric meditation alongside historical source material and records. Such work enables poets and readers to engage in intimate explorations of events and lives from the past while grappling with ethical questions concerning issues of poetic representation.  \n\n\n\nHow can poetry present Jewish history\, promoting Judaism and Jewish values\, whether rooted in records of the collective past or in an individual’s story? Is it valid\, in such dark times such as ours\, to use poems as a means of working toward tikkun olam\, the repairing of the world\, although the poet W. H. Auden has written that “Poetry makes nothing happen?”  \n\n\n\nIn this generative workshop\, I will refer to the approaches I took in writing my book of poems\, Aunt Bird\, in which I try to imagine the life and death during the Holocaust of one of my aunts. As a group\, we will also read poems by Emma Lazarus\, Paul Celan\, Dan Pagis\, Miklós Radnóti\, Muriel Rukeyser\, Adrienne Rich\, Anthony Hecht and Ilya Kaminsky\, among others.  \n\n\n\nThrough reading\, discussion\, and writing\, we will consider different ways of approaching Jewish history as it occurred\, and as it is being made. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Dates & Cost\n\n\n\nMarch 22\, 2025\, 12:00-3:00 PM \n\n\n\n$108—standard registration$87—18% discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Yerra\n\n\n\nYerra Sugarman’s three volumes of poetry are: Aunt Bird (Four Way Books\, 2022)\, which won American Book Fest’s 2022 Best Book Award for General Poetry\, and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in Poetry; The Bag of Broken Glass (Sheep Meadow\, 2008)\, poems from which received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship; and Forms of Gone (Sheep Meadow\, 2002)\, winner of PEN American Center’s Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature\, and is the daughter of Holocaust survivors. She serves on the Board of Yetzirah\, and co-curates its reading series
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/imagining-jewish-history-into-poetry-with-yerra-sugarman/
CATEGORIES:Live Workshops
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://yetzirahpoets.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Yetzirah-workshops.Sugarman.March22.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260208T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260208T150000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250829T191726Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250904T121400Z
UID:10000039-1770552000-1770562800@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"Spiritualizing the Ordinary" with Yehoshua November
DESCRIPTION:Given contemporary poetry’s largely secular leanings\, it’s not surprising that few poets today celebrate supernatural miracles\, overtly religious experiences\, or Divinity\, in general. But how does one explain contemporary poetry’s tendency to insist on profound meaning in the ordinary—a tendency that\, at times\, appears to border on obsession? In this workshop\, we will look at a Chassidic text that might speak to this seeming paradox. Then\, with this teaching in mind\, we will read several contemporary poems and go on to write our own pieces that attempt to spiritualize the ordinary.  We will also branch out into several additional prompts with a variety of craft elements in mind.  \n\n\n\nWorkshop Dates & Cost\n\n\n\nFebruary 8\, 2025\, 12:00-3:00 PM \n\n\n\n$108—standard registration$87—18% discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Yehoshua\n\n\n\nYehoshua November is the author of God’s Optimism (a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize)\, Two Worlds Exist (a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and the Paterson Poetry Prize)\, and The Concealment of Endless Light (Orison Books\, 2024). His work has been featured or is forthcoming in The New York Times Magazine\, The Best American Poetry anthology\, Harvard Divinity Bulletin\, The Sun\, Virginia Quarterly Review\, TriQuarterly\, and on NPR and Poetry Unbound. November teaches writing at Rutgers University and Touro University.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/spiritualizing-the-ordinary-with-yehoshua-november/
CATEGORIES:Live Workshops
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260126T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260129T160000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250903T224219Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250903T224222Z
UID:10000062-1769436000-1769702400@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:“Finding Light in the Dark of Winter" with Eve Grubin
DESCRIPTION:This workshop was held live on December 25\, with the aim of transforming a day that can sometimes be lonely or restless for Jewish writers into one rich with meaning\, self-reflection\, and productive thinking and writing. The session is for poets of all traditions who would like to work with Jewish themes. Participants will discuss craft while analyzing inspiring poems written by a range of Jewish poets—from ancient to contemporary times—and generative prompts will be given to inspire some new poems of your own. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Dates & Cost\n\n\n\n$36—standard registration$30—18% discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Eve\n\n\n\nEve Grubin is the author of the collections of poems: Morning Prayer (Sheep Meadow Press\, 2005)\, The House of Our First Loving\, a chapbook\, (Rack Press\, 2016)\, and Grief Dialogue\, a chapbook\, (Rack Press\, 2022). Her next book of poems\, Boat of Letters\, is forthcoming from Four Way Books. She teaches at NYU London and The Poetry School. More information can be found at www.evegrubin.com. Visit Eve’s profile in our Discover Jewish Poets database.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/finding-light-in-the-dark-of-winter-with-eve-grubin/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://yetzirahpoets.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Yetzirah-workshops.Grubin.Christmas.png
LOCATION:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/finding-light-in-the-dark-of-winter-with-eve-grubin/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260126T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260129T160000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250721T171223Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250903T221242Z
UID:10000001-1769436000-1769702400@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:“Poetry Inspired by Classic Jewish Texts” with Eve Grubin
DESCRIPTION:In this generative workshop we will study and discuss a range of pre-selected passages from classical Jewish texts such as extracts from the Talmud\, verses from the Hebrew Bible\, and commentaries by medieval and later rabbis. We will then look at how poets have brought language or ideas from some of these texts into their poems. We’ll study poems by such poets as John Milton\, John Keats\, Dan Pagis\, T.S. Eliot\, Lucille Clifton\, Sharon Olds\, Marie Howe\, Yehoshua November\, and more. Finally\, we will engage with these writings by beginning our own poems in response to them. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Dates & Cost\n\n\n\n$36—standard registration$30—18% discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Eve\n\n\n\nEve Grubin is the author of the collections of poems: Morning Prayer (Sheep Meadow Press\, 2005)\, The House of Our First Loving\, a chapbook\, (Rack Press\, 2016)\, and Grief Dialogue\, a chapbook\, (Rack Press\, 2022). Her next book of poems\, Boat of Letters\, is forthcoming from Four Way Books. She teaches at NYU London and The Poetry School. More information can be found at www.evegrubin.com. Visit Eve’s profile in our Discover Jewish Poets database.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/poetry-inspired-by-classic-jewish-texts-with-eve-grubin-delete/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
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LOCATION:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/poetry-inspired-by-classic-jewish-texts-with-eve-grubin-delete/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260125T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260125T150000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250902T032833Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250904T144310Z
UID:10000048-1769342400-1769353200@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:“What Does Love Have To Do With It: A Midrash Workshop” with Alicia Ostriker
DESCRIPTION:“What Does Love Have To Do With It: A Midrash Workshop” with Alicia Ostriker \n\n\n\nTorah does not deal with love very often\, but when it does\, it is life-changing.  In this workshop we will read biblical texts dealing with four love-relationships.  Writing midrash\, we discover what the stories can mean for our own lives\, our own time\, our own language. Writing midrash\, we surprise ourselves. We surprise each other.  It’s almost like being in love. \n\n\n\nSession 1: based on Isaac’s love of Rebecca (Gen 24: 67\, and all that leads up to it and follows it) \n\n\n\nSession 2:  Jacob’s love of Rachel (especially Gen 29:11\, 18-20\, 30) and its consequences. \n\n\n\nSession 3:  Jonathon’s love for David (1 Samuel 18:1-3; 19:1-7; 20:1-23; 2 Samuel 1:1-26 \n\n\n\nSession 4:  The Song of Songs (all) \n\n\n\nPlease note: This workshop will be limited to 12 participants. Please contact Danny Kraft at dkraft.yetzirahpoets@gmail.com to be added to the waitlist after it fills. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Dates & Cost\n\n\n\nFour Sundays\, 1/25\, 2/22\, 3/29\, 4/26\, 12:00-3:00 PM \n\n\n\n$360—standard registration$295—18% discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Alicia\n\n\n\nAlicia Ostriker is both a poet and a critic. As a prose writer she is best known for her book Stealing the Language: the Emergence of Women’s Poetry in America. She has also published several other books on poetry and on the Bible. As a poet she has published 20 chapbooks and full collections\, been twice nominated for the National Book Award\, and has twice received the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry\, among other honors. Her most recent book is The Holy and Broken Bliss: Poems in Plague Time (2024).
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/what-does-love-have-to-do-with-it-a-midrash-workshop-with-alicia-ostriker/2026-01-25/
CATEGORIES:Live Workshops
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://yetzirahpoets.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Yetzirah-workshops.Ostriker.2025.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20251221T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20251221T130000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250831T151357Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251201T230237Z
UID:10000044-1766314800-1766322000@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"Sacred Objects: Finding the Magic Inside" with Hadara Bar-Nadav
DESCRIPTION:“Sacred Objects: Finding the Magic Inside” with Hadara Bar-Nadav \n\n\n\nWhat objects do you hold sacred? A ring\, a key\, a house\, or a text? This generative workshop assumes that objects hold energy and power in our lives. Consider the torah\, dressed in velvet and draped in silver\, for which an entire congregation stands\, this sacred text that a rabbi will only touch with a pointer (yad). Consider the menorah\, the candles\, and the glorious lights of Chanukah\, the radiant inner lives of these objects\, what they see\, say\, and can reveal to us. \n\n\n\nThis workshop will focus on uses of imagery—all sensory information—to explore sacred objects in our lives and honor their magic and mystery.  Authors studied may include Bert Meyers\, Gertrude Stein\, Alicia Ostriker\, Lucie Brock-Broido\, and others. We will spend time together reading\, writing\, and sharing.Workshop will be capped at 25 participants. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Date and Costs\n\n\n\nDecember 21\, 2025\, 11:00-1:00 PM EST \n\n\n\n$72—standard registration$60—18% discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here)Please note: this workshop will be limited to 25 participants. \n\n\n\nAs we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Hadara\n\n\n\nHadara Bar-Nadav is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry\, the Lucille Medwick Award from the Poetry Society of America\, a fellowship from the Poetry Foundation\, and other honors. She is the author of five books of poetry\, most recently The Animal Is Chemical (Four Way Books\, 2024)\, awarded the Levis Prize in Poetry\, selected by Jericho Brown; The New Nudity (Saturnalia Books\, 2017); Lullaby (with Exit Sign) (Saturnalia Books\, 2013)\, awarded the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize; The Frame Called Ruin (New Issues\, 2012)\, Editor’s Selection/Runner Up for the Green Rose Prize; and A Glass of Milk to Kiss Goodnight (Margie/Intuit House\, 2007)\, awarded the Margie Book Prize.  She is also the author of two chapbooks\, Fountain and Furnace (Tupelo Press\, 2015)\, awarded the Sunken Garden Poetry Prize\, and Show Me Yours (Laurel Review/Green Tower Press 2010)\, awarded the Midwest Poets Series Prize. In addition\, she is co-author with Michelle Boisseau of the best-selling textbook Writing Poems\, 8th ed. (Pearson\, 2011). Her poetry has appeared in the American Poetry Review\, The Believer\, Kenyon Review\, Ploughshares\, and elsewhere. A current reader for POETRY\, she is a Professor of English and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/sacred-objects-finding-the-magic-inside-with-hadara-bar-nadav/
CATEGORIES:Live Workshops
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://yetzirahpoets.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Yetzirah-workshops.Bar-Nadav.Dec12.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20251204T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20251204T210000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20251201T230152Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251215T163429Z
UID:10000065-1764874800-1764882000@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"'The Psyche is a Labyrinth;’ Exploring Identity in Yiddish Poetry” with Danny Kraft
DESCRIPTION: “‘The Psyche is a Labyrinth;’ Exploring Identity in Yiddish Poetry” with Danny Kraft \nREGISTER TO JOIN US \nIn a 1919 literary manifesto\, a group of modernist Yiddish poets known in English as the Introspectivists wrote that “the human psyche is an awesome labyrinth\,” filled with thousands of beings and inheritances from the past and present\, whose complexities and contradictions constitute “the real life of a human.” If we take this idea seriously\, how would it change our understanding of ourselves and our identities\, and how might it influence our approaches to writing lyric poetry as a means of self-expression? \nIn this generative workshop\, we will discuss great Yiddish poems (in translation) that present human identity in complicated and fascinating ways. Through close readings\, we will consider how 20th century Yiddish poets enacted unstable\, ambivalent\, and complex experiences of their own identities\, and we will experiment with drafting new poems inspired by our Yiddish forebears. Along the way\, we will discover new/old methods of imagining and writing about ourselves and our expansive\, contradictory identities\, beyond the standard categories of contemporary identity discourse. \nNo knowledge of Yiddish is required for this workshop\, and writers and readers of all backgrounds and experience levels are welcome. \nThis Workshop is Co-Sponsored by the Yiddish Book Center \n \n\n \nWorkshop Date and Costs\nDecember 4\, 2025\, 7:00-9:00 PM EST \n$72—standard registration$60—18% discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \nPlease note: this workshop will be limited to 25 participants. \nREGISTER TO JOIN US \nAs we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n \nAbout Danny\nDanny Kraft is a poet\, translator\, and educator who works as Yetzirah’s Program Manager. His poems\, essays\, and translations have appeared in numerous publications\, including The Kenyon Review\, Poetry Ireland Review\, Slate\, Brooklyn Rail\, and Jewish Currents. His debut poetry collection is forthcoming from Slant Books. Danny has taught at various institutions\, including the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University\, and the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków. His work has been supported with a translation fellowship from Yiddish Book Center.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/the-psyche-is-a-labyrinth-exploring-identity-in-yiddish-poetry-with-danny-kraft-2/
CATEGORIES:Live Workshops
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://yetzirahpoets.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Yetzirah-workshops.Kraft_.Dec14.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20251105T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20251119T140000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250902T031513Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250904T121339Z
UID:10000045-1762347600-1763560800@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"Writing Shekhinah" with Joy Ladin
DESCRIPTION:“Writing Shekhinah” with Joy Ladin \n\n\n\nOne of the most ancient functions of poetry is to make divine presence perceptible through language. This class will probe the intersections between language\, poetry\, and the Shekhinah\, Jewish tradition’s name for divine presence\, an aspect of God that who is present in human time\, space\, relationships\, and communities\, and shares our lives and sufferings rather than looking down on them from above. Unlike other ancient forms of divine presence\, many of which emerge through prophecy\, vision\, and received traditions\, the Shekhinah first emerged in writing by rabbis who knew that the Shekhinah\, a rabbinic term derived from a Biblical verb used to refer to God “dwelling” among the Israelites\, did not appear in the Torah or earlier traditions. Instead\, the Shekhinah was a conception of divine presence (actually many conceptions) developed by the rabbis\, not in response to revelation but to human spiritual needs. We will explore some of the texts in which the Shekhinah first emerged as well as later\, quite different\, female-identified versions of Her\, including medieval mystical texts and poetry by Jewish feminists working to raise the Shekhinah’s profile in contemporary Judaism. We will discuss these texts both to get to know some of the many things Shekhinah and divine presence have meant in Jewish tradition\, and also to understand the linguistic techniques they use to conceive and evoke Her. We will practice these techniques through exercises designed to help us use our own writing to search for\, question\, imagine\, encounter\, and respond to the Shekhinah\, or whatever we understand as presence beyond the human. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Dates & Cost\n\n\n\nThree Wednesdays 11/5\, 11/12\, 11/19\, 1:00-2:00 PM \n\n\n\n$108—standard registration$87—18% discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Joy \n\n\n\nJoy Ladin has published ten books of poetry\, including National Jewish Book Award winner The Book of Anna\, Lambda Literary Award finalists Transmigration and Impersonation\, and newly published Shekhinah Speaks (Selva Oscura). She is also the author of a memoir\, National Jewish Book Award finalist Through the Door of Life; and Lambda Literary and Triangle Award finalist The Soul of the Stranger. Visit Joy’s profile in Yetzirah’s Jewish Poets Database.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/writing-shekhinah-with-joy-ladin-2/
CATEGORIES:Live Workshops
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://yetzirahpoets.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Yetzirah-workshops.Ladin_.Nov_-2.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251019T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251019T150000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250829T174600Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251029T141144Z
UID:10000015-1760875200-1760886000@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"In the beginnings: Writing in Conversation with Sacred Texts" with Jessica Jacobs
DESCRIPTION:In the beginnings: Writing in Conversation with Sacred Texts \n\n\n\nTexts 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. \n\n\n\nCo-Sponsored by Lilith \n\n\n\nWorkshop Dates & Cost\n\n\n\n$108—standard registration$87—18% discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Jessica\n\n\n\nJessica 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. \n\n\n\nJessica 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.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/in-the-beginnings-writing-in-conversation-with-sacred-texts-with-jessica-jacobs-2/
CATEGORIES:Live Workshops
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://yetzirahpoets.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Yetzirah-workshops.Jacobs.Oct19.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T170000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20260326T165041Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260326T165402Z
UID:10000074-1756627200-1756659600@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"Imagining Jewish History Into Poetry" with Yerra Sugarman
DESCRIPTION:“Imagining Jewish History Into Poetry” with Yerra Sugarman \n\n\n\nThe German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin\, before his death in 1940 when he took his own life to avoid being murdered as a Jew in Europe\, wrote: “There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” Urging us to recognize the complexity of historical events\, Benjamin asks that we avoid simplistic narratives celebrating progress without acknowledging the costs: the suffering and exploitation of others. \n\n\n\nPoeticizing history requires careful and complex consideration. The ethics of transforming tragedy into poems presents a complex moral landscape\, prompting critical reflection on the artist’s function\, the audience’s experience\, and the very nature of art itself. Yet poetry can play a meaningful role in offering testimony and portraying history beyond the mere chronicling of a moment in time. It can be a conduit for commemoration; a means of bearing witness; and a way of pushing the borders of how we look at both the distant and recent past. It can also be a way of giving voice to people who can no longer speak for themselves\, providing unsaid perspectives of those who have been silenced. \n\n\n\nThere is\, for instance\, the tradition of documentary poetry that places lyric meditation alongside historical source material and records. Such work enables poets and readers to engage in intimate explorations of events and lives from the past while grappling with ethical questions concerning issues of poetic representation. \n\n\n\nHow can poetry present Jewish history\, promoting Judaism and Jewish values\, whether rooted in records of the collective past or in an individual’s story? Is it valid\, in such dark times such as ours\, to use poems as a means of working toward tikkun olam\, the repairing of the world\, although the poet W. H. Auden has written that “Poetry makes nothing happen?” \n\n\n\nIn this generative workshop\, I will refer to the approaches I took in writing my book of poems\, Aunt Bird\, in which I try to imagine the life and death during the Holocaust of one of my aunts. As a group\, we will also read poems by Emma Lazarus\, Paul Celan\, Dan Pagis\, Miklós Radnóti\, Muriel Rukeyser\, Adrienne Rich\, Anthony Hecht and Ilya Kaminsky\, among others. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Costs\n\n\n\n\nOne recorded class\n\n\n\nLink to poems discussed in class                        \n\n\n\n$36—standard registration\n\n\n\n$30—discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here)\n\n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Yerra\n\n\n\nYerra Sugarman is the author of three full-length volumes of poetry: Aunt Bird (Four Way Books\, 2022); The Bag of Broken Glass (Sheep Meadow Press\, 2008)\, whose poems earned a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship; and Forms of Gone (Sheep Meadow Press\, 2002)\, winner of the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award. Her chapbook From Her Lips Like Steam appeared in 2019. She has received a Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award\, a Canada Council grant\, and awards from the Poetry Society of America. Her work appears in Ploughshares\, AGNI\, The Nation\, and elsewhere. She has taught at several universities\, including NYU and Rutgers. Born in Toronto to Holocaust survivors\, she lives in New York City and serves on Yetzirah’s board. She holds an MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University and a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston\, and continues to write\, teach\, and mentor emerging writers.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/imagining-jewish-history-into-poetry-with-yerra-sugarman-2/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T170000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20260220T170706Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260220T170711Z
UID:10000073-1756627200-1756659600@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"Spiritualizing the Ordinary” with Yehoshua November
DESCRIPTION:“Spiritualizing the Ordinary” with Yehoshua November Given contemporary poetry’s largely secular leanings\, it’s not surprising that few poets today celebrate supernatural miracles\, overtly religious experiences\, or Divinity\, in general. But how does one explain contemporary poetry’s tendency to insist on profound meaning in the ordinary—a tendency that\, at times\, appears to border on obsession? In this workshop\, we will look at a Chassidic text that might speak to this seeming paradox. Then\, with this teaching in mind\, we will read several contemporary poems and go on to write our own pieces that attempt to spiritualize the ordinary.  We will also branch out into several additional prompts with a variety of craft elements in mind. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Costs\n\n\n\n\nOne recorded class\n\n\n\nLink to poems discussed in class                        \n\n\n\n$36—standard registration\n\n\n\n$30—discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here)\n\n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Yehoshua \n\n\n\nYehoshua November is the author of God’s Optimism (a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize)\, Two Worlds Exist (a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and the Paterson Poetry Prize)\, and The Concealment of Endless Light (Orison Books\, 2024). His work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine\, Harvard Divinity Bulletin\, The Sun\, VQR\, TriQuarterly\, and on National Public Radio and Poetry Unbound. November teaches creative writing at Rutgers University and Touro University and serves as mashpia\, spiritual mentor\, at Chabad of Teaneck
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/spiritualizing-the-ordinary-with-yehoshua-november-2/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://yetzirahpoets.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Yetzirah-workshops.November.Feb8_.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T170000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20260115T190949Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260115T190953Z
UID:10000071-1756627200-1756659600@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"Sacred Objects: Finding the Magic Inside" with Hadara Bar Nadav
DESCRIPTION:“Sacred Objects: Finding the Magic Inside” with Hadara Bar Nadav \n\n\n\nWhat objects do you hold sacred? A ring\, a key\, a house\, or a text? This generative workshop assumes that objects hold energy and power in our lives. Consider the torah\, dressed in velvet and draped in silver\, for which an entire congregation stands\, this sacred text that a rabbi will only touch with a pointer (yad). Consider the menorah\, the candles\, and the glorious lights of Chanukah\, the radiant inner lives of these objects\, what they see\, say\, and can reveal to us. \n\n\n\nThis workshop will focus on uses of imagery—all sensory information—to explore sacred objects in our lives and honor their magic and mystery.  Authors studied may include Bert Meyers\, Gertrude Stein\, Alicia Ostriker\, Lucie Brock-Broido\, and others. We will spend time together reading\, writing\, and sharing. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Costs\n\n\n\n\nOne recorded class\n\n\n\nLink to poems discussed in class                        \n\n\n\n$36—standard registration\n\n\n\n$30—discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here)\n\n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Hadara \n\n\n\nHadara Bar-Nadav is the recipient of a NEA Fellowship\, the Lucille Medwick  Award from the Poetry Society of America\, a fellowship from the Poetry  Foundation\, and other honors. Her books include The Animal Is Chemical  (Four Way Books\, 2024)\, awarded the Levis Prize in Poetry; The New Nudity (Saturnalia Books\, 2017); Lullaby (with Exit Sign) (Saturnalia Books\, 2013)\,  awarded the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize; and The Frame Called Ruin (New  Issues\, 2012)\, awarded the Margie Book Prize. A reader for Poetry Magazine\, she is a Professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/sacred-objects-finding-the-magic-inside-with-hadara-bar-nadav-2/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://yetzirahpoets.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Yetzirah-workshops.Bar-Nadav.Dec12.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T170000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20251215T175659Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251215T175703Z
UID:10000070-1756627200-1756659600@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"'The Psyche is a Labyrinth;’ Exploring Identity in Yiddish Poetry” with Danny Kraft
DESCRIPTION:“‘The Psyche is a Labyrinth;’ Exploring Identity in Yiddish Poetry” with Danny Kraft \n\n\n\nIn a 1919 literary manifesto\, a group of modernist Yiddish poets known in English as the Introspectivists wrote that “the human psyche is an awesome labyrinth\,” filled with thousands of beings and inheritances from the past and present\, whose complexities and contradictions constitute “the real life of a human.” If we take this idea seriously\, how would it change our understanding of ourselves and our identities\, and how might it influence our approaches to writing lyric poetry as a means of self-expression? \n\n\n\nIn this generative workshop\, we will discuss great Yiddish poems (in translation) that present human identity in complicated and fascinating ways. Through close readings\, we will consider how 20th century Yiddish poets enacted unstable\, ambivalent\, and complex experiences of their own identities\, and we will experiment with drafting new poems inspired by our Yiddish forebears. Along the way\, we will discover new/old methods of imagining and writing about ourselves and our expansive\, contradictory identities\, beyond the standard categories of contemporary identity discourse. \n\n\n\nNo knowledge of Yiddish is required for this workshop\, and writers and readers of all backgrounds and experience levels are welcome. \n\n\n\nThis Workshop is Co-Sponsored by the Yiddish Book Center \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWorkshop Costs\n\n\n\n\nOne recorded class\n\n\n\nLink to poems discussed in class                        \n\n\n\n$36—standard registration\n\n\n\n$30—discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here)\n\n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Danny\n\n\n\nDanny Kraft is a poet\, translator\, and educator who works as Yetzirah’s Program Manager. His poems\, essays\, and translations have appeared in numerous publications\, including The Kenyon Review\, Poetry Ireland Review\, Slate\, Brooklyn Rail\, and Jewish Currents. His debut poetry collection is forthcoming from Slant Books. Danny has taught at various institutions\, including the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University\, and the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków. His work has been supported with a translation fellowship from Yiddish Book Center.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/the-psyche-is-a-labyrinth-exploring-identity-in-yiddish-poetry-with-danny-kraft/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://yetzirahpoets.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Yetzirah-workshops.Kraft_.Dec14-1.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T170000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20251215T160746Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251215T160750Z
UID:10000069-1756627200-1756659600@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"Writing Shekhinah" with Joy Ladin
DESCRIPTION:Writing Shekhinah \n\n\n\nOne of the most ancient functions of poetry is to make divine presence perceptible through language. This class will probe the intersections between language\, poetry\, and the Shekhinah\, Jewish tradition’s name for divine presence\, an aspect of God that who is present in human time\, space\, relationships\, and communities\, and shares our lives and sufferings rather than looking down on them from above. Unlike other ancient forms of divine presence\, many of which emerge through prophecy\, vision\, and received traditions\, the Shekhinah first emerged in writing by rabbis who knew that the Shekhinah\, a rabbinic term derived from a Biblical verb used to refer to God “dwelling” among the Israelites\, did not appear in the Torah or earlier traditions. Instead\, the Shekhinah was a conception of divine presence (actually many conceptions) developed by the rabbis\, not in response to revelation but to human spiritual needs. We will explore some of the texts in which the Shekhinah first emerged as well as later\, quite different\, female-identified versions of Her\, including medieval mystical texts and poetry by Jewish feminists working to raise the Shekhinah’s profile in contemporary Judaism. We will discuss these texts both to get to know some of the many things Shekhinah and divine presence have meant in Jewish tradition\, and also to understand the linguistic techniques they use to conceive and evoke Her. We will practice these techniques through exercises designed to help us use our own writing to search for\, question\, imagine\, encounter\, and respond to the Shekhinah\, or whatever we understand as presence beyond the human. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Costs\n\n\n\n\nThree recorded classes\n\n\n\nLink to poems discussed in class                        \n\n\n\n$36—standard registration\n\n\n\n$30—discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here)\n\n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Joy\n\n\n\nJoy Ladin has published ten books of poetry\, including National Jewish Book Award winner The Book of Anna\, Lambda Literary Award finalists Transmigration and Impersonation\, and newly published Shekhinah Speaks (Selva Oscura). She is also the author of a memoir\, National Jewish Book Award finalist Through the Door of Life; and Lambda Literary and Triangle Award finalist The Soul of the Stranger. Visit Joy’s profile in Yetzirah’s Jewish Poets Database.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/writing-shekhinah-with-joy-ladin-3/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://yetzirahpoets.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Yetzirah-workshops.Ladin_.Nov_.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T170000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250903T224656Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251027T192234Z
UID:10000063-1756627200-1756659600@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"Poetry of the Cosmic All" with Mónica Gomery
DESCRIPTION:“Poetry of the Cosmic All” with Mónica Gomery \n\n\n\nDaniela Naomi Molnar calls it “a generosity too large for us to know.” Tracy K Smith refers to “the universe [as] a house party.” And Joy Ladin dubs it an “infinity thick/ as star-sparked honey.” \n\n\n\nIn this workshop\, we’ll explore poems as a portal to enormity\, interconnectedness\, wonder and clutter. Poems wide as the universe\, populated with galaxies and star systems\, great bodies of water\, mycelial networks\, biodiversity\, mystery and contradiction. How do poets harness the epic\, the scientific\, the micro and the macro\, and draw it all together into something bigger than the sum of its parts? How do poems help us connect the self to the infinite? In a fractured world\, this writing can be political\, spiritual\, a source of comfort or of agitation. How might these poems inch us toward an expansive understanding of divinity or transcendence? \n\n\n\nWe’ll read work by Aracelis Girmay\, Etel Adnan\, Juliana Spahr\, Mahmoud Darwish\, Joy Harjo\, Alexis Pauline Gumbs\, Ocean Vuong\, Wislawa Szymborska\, and others. We’ll read Jewish poets Rosebud ben Oni\, Aurora Levins-Morales\, Hila Ratzabi\, Gloria Gervitz\, Victoria Redel\, and Jared Harél. We’ll consider liturgical poetry from psalms and the siddur\, and an S. Ansky folk tale. \n\n\n\nWe’ll marvel at these ambitious poems\, wrestle with the known and unknowable\, and discover together how we want to approach this “Cosmic All” in our own writing lives. \n\n\n\nSpiritual experience often feels private\, isolating\, uncommunicable. Spiritual autobiographies\, from anecdotes to full-blown memoirs\, use storytelling techniques to break down this sense of isolation\, offering others glimpses of our own struggles and exaltations\, and\, more importantly\, because readers interpret narratives by identifying with characters and projecting our own lives onto events in stories\, turning our private experiences into stories through which others can recognize\, reflect on\, and be inspired in their own spiritual journeys. In this generative writing workshop we will look at examples of spiritual anecdote and autobiography\, discuss the communicability and incommunicability of spiritual experience\, and practice using midrash\, haiku\, and self-inventory to develop our own spiritual narratives. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Cost\n\n\n\n\n3 recorded classes\, followed by recorded Q&As\n\n\n\nhandouts with representative texts and prompts to guide your writing\n\n\n\n\n$72—standard registration \n\n\n\n$59—discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Mónica\n\n\n\nMónica Gomery is a writer and rabbi. Her second poetry collection\, Might Kindred\, won the Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize and was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2022. She is also the author of the poetry collection Here is the Night and the Night on the Road (Cooper Dillon Books\, 2018)\, and the chapbook Of Darkness and Tumbling (YesYes Books\, 2017). Her poems have been awarded the Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize and the Sappho Prize for Women Poets\, and have been featured on Ours Poetica and The Slowdown podcast. Recent poems appear in The Kenyon Review\, Poetry Northwest\, The Massachusetts Review\, and West Branch\, among other journals. Mónica was ordained by Hebrew College in 2017 and serves as Rabbi and Music Director at Kol Tzedek Synagogue in Philadelphia. Visit Mónica’s profile in our Discover Jewish Poets database.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/poetry-of-the-cosmic-all-with-monica-gomery/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://yetzirahpoets.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Yetzirah-workshops.Gomery.2024-1.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T170000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250831T174345Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250831T174533Z
UID:10000056-1756627200-1756659600@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:“Season of Our Turning: a Generative Poetry Workshop for the Jewish High Holidays” with Rick Chess
DESCRIPTION:“Season of Our Turning: a Generative Poetry Workshop for the Jewish High Holidays” with Rick Chess \n\n\n\n“The word verse\,” writes Edward Hirsch in A Poet’s Glossary\, “is traditionally thought to derive from the Latin versus\, meaning a ‘line\,’ ‘row\,’ or ‘furrow.’ The metaphor of ‘plough’ for ‘write’ thus dates to antiquity. Verse may alternately derive from the Latin vertere\, ‘to turn.’”  \n\n\n\nTurning and returning: these are also essential moves for Jewish people\, especially during the ten Days of Awe\, bookended by Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and preceded by the month of Elul on the Hebrew calendar. During this period\, Jewish people are called upon to reflect on ways we have missed the mark–in our personal and communal lives–over the last year and to commit to redirecting our efforts to living in a way that is intended to be of benefit to ourselves and others. The process we engage in throughout the holiday season is called teshuvah\, turning\, or\, as commonly translated\, repenting. \n\n\n\nIn this exploratory\, generative workshop\, we’ll look at a few of the ways poems turn–from line to line\, phrase to phrase\, word to word\, maybe even syllable to syllable. We’ll practice making similar turns in a few lines of our own. And we’ll invite ourselves to look for ways–subtle and bold–we might make some turns in our own lives as we head into the High Holiday period. \n\n\n\nRichard Howard\, as cited by Hirsch\, has said\, “process proceeds\, verse reverses.” Through this workshop\, in addition to writing and rewriting a few lines (who knows\, maybe even a draft of an entire poem!) we may find an area in our lives which would benefit from a reversal. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Costs\n\n\n\n\nOne recorded class\n\n\n\nLink to poems discussed in class                        \n\n\n\n$36—standard registration\n\n\n\n$30—discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here)\n\n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Rick\n\n\n\nRichard Chess is the author of four books of poetry\, Love Nailed to the Doorpost (University of Tampa Press 2017)\, Tekiah (University of Georgia Press 1996; republished by University of Tampa Press 2000); Chair in the Desert (University of Tampa Press 2000); and Third Temple (University of Tampa Press 2006). His poems have been anthologized in Telling and Remembering: A Century of American Jewish Poetry\, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry\, Bearing Witness: Twenty Years of Image Journal\, and elsewhere. His work has also been included in Best American Spiritual Writing 2005. His essays have been included in Stars Shall Bend Their Voices: Poets’ Favorite Hymns and Spiritual Songs\, 27 Views of Asheville\, Far from the Center of Ambition\, and elsewhere. New poems have recently been published or are forthcoming in The Sun\, Pensive\, Vita Poetica\, and in Revisiting the Rothko Chapel\, a book of scholarly and creative reflections on “the intersecting spiritual and aesthetic dimensions that give the Rothko Chapel its great power.” He is a regular contributor to Close Reading\, the blog hosted by Slant Books. He was a member of the core arts faculty at the Brandeis Bardin Institute for three years\, after which he was on the faculty of the Jewish Arts Institute at Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. He is Professor Emeritus at UNC Asheville. He directed UNC Asheville’s Center for Jewish Studies for 30 years. He also played a leading role in UNC Asheville’s contemplative inquiry initiative. He is the Treasurer of Yetzirah. Visit Rick’s profile in our Discover Jewish Poets database.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/season-of-our-turning-a-generative-poetry-workshop-for-the-jewish-high-holidays-with-rick-chess/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T170000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250831T173711Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250831T173716Z
UID:10000055-1756627200-1756659600@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:“White Fire–the Art and Play of Midrash: the Journey and Meanings of Exodus“ with Alicia Ostriker
DESCRIPTION:“White Fire–the Art and Play of Midrash: the Journey and Meanings of Exodus“ with Alicia Ostriker \n\n\n\nIf the text does not apply to us it is an empty text…. We take the text in relation to ourselves\, understanding ourselves in its light\, even as our situation throws its light upon the text\, allowing it to disclose itself differently\, perhaps in unheard-of ways.–Gerald Bruns\, “Midrash and Allegory: the Beginning of Scriptural Interpretation” \n\n\n\nShe is a tree of life to those that lay hold on her.–Proverbs 3:18. \n\n\n\nMidrash (pl. midrashim) is from a term in Hebrew meaning seek or investigate.   \n\n\n\nImagine that you are Eve.  You have just had an interesting conversation with a talking serpent who insists that God doesn’t want you to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil because He is afraid you will become as one of the gods yourself.  You regard the tree\, and see that the fruit is attractive\, good to eat\, and good for making a person wise.  You reach forth your hand\, take the fruit\, and eat.  What do you feel at that moment?  What are you thinking? \n\n\n\nImagine that you are Jacob.  You are alone at night in the Negev Desert.  Your family is on one side of the Jabbok river\, and you are on the other\, worrying.  In the morning you will be meeting your brother Esau.  You haven’t seen him for twenty years\, not since you cheated him out of your father’s blessing and he threatened to kill you.  Suddenly a man appears from nowhere and leaps on you\, throwing you to the ground.  He wrestles with you all night.  He dislocates your thigh.  Neither of you wins.  As the sky lightens\, the strange being says\, “Let me go\,  for dawn is coming.”  What are you feeling at that moment? \n\n\n\nThere are countless things the narratives of Torah don’t tell us.  This is where midrash comes in.  According to tradition\, Torah is not words alone.  Torah is black fire written on white fire.  Through midrash\, we imagine the unsaid. We read between the lines.  We can see the connection between our ancestors and ourselves\, and we can see that Torah is not only a very ancient Book–it is a totally modern one too.  It mirrors our lives and the life of society\, at least as well as any novel\, and maybe better.  As we enter the stories\, the stories enter us\, and both are changed forever. \n\n\n\nThe word has many meanings in Jewish history\, but for poets\, it means re-telling the compelling stories of Torah in every generation\, in ways that are both personal and communal.  For when we create new midrash in response to our own spiritual and psychic needs\, we are simultaneously adding to and transforming our tradition\, growing new twigs on the Tree of Life that is Torah\, and helping to create the future of Judaism. \n\n\n\nIn these workshops\, we explore biblical texts in free-form discussion\, we write in response to prompts\, we commonly astonish ourselves and each other by what we write\, we laugh a lot\, and sometimes we cry.  \n\n\n\nWorkshop Costs\n\n\n\n\n4 recorded classes with generative writing prompts\n\n\n\nHandouts with the texts discussed \n\n\n\n\n$90—standard registration \n\n\n\n$74—discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Alicia\n\n\n\nAlicia Ostriker is both a poet and a critic. As a prose writer she is best known for her book Stealing the Language: the Emergence of Women’s Poetry in America. She has also published several other books on poetry and on the Bible. As a poet she has published 20 chapbooks and full collections\, been twice nominated for the National Book Award\, and has twice received the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry\, among other honors. Her most recent book is The Holy and Broken Bliss: Poems in Plague Time (2024).
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/white-fire-the-art-and-play-of-midrash-the-journey-and-meanings-of-exodus-with-alicia-ostriker/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T170000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250831T172627Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250831T172736Z
UID:10000054-1756627200-1756659600@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"Poetic Lineages" with Ilya Kaminsky
DESCRIPTION:“Poetic Lineages” with Ilya Kaminsky \n\n\n\nWe will read poems from Jewish poets of Eastern Europe and elsewhere and we will marvel together on the idea of poetic lineages: how do poets learn from other poets across time and geography? Is there such a thing as a poetics of diaspora? poetics of exile? How do poets enter in conversation with poets that came before them? How do poets bring back to life the authors who came before them and were (unjustly) forgotten? How can our own words grow and change as we overhear conversations between other poets\, on and off the page? I hope that in our time together we will all ask impossible questions—and then try to answer them with unpredictable new lyrics. \n\n\n\nThis workshop is a modified version of the one Ilya taught at our 2023 Jewish Poetry Conference\, to give you a taste of Yetzirah’s conference offerings. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Cost\n\n\n\n1 recorded class (just under three hours) \n\n\n\nHandout with the texts discussed and the chat transcript$36—standard registration  \n\n\n\n$30—discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Ilya\n\n\n\nIlya Kaminsky was born in Odessa\, former USSR and came to USA in 1993 when his family was granted asylum by the American government. He is the author of Dancing in Odessa (Tupelo) and Deaf Republic (Graywolf) as well as co-editor of Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (Harper Collins)\, Homage to Paul Celan (Marick) and many other books. He has also translated books by Marina Tsvetaeva\, Polina Barskova\, Boris and Ludmila Khersonsky\, among others. His work has received The Los Angeles Times Book Prize\, The Guggenheim Fellowship\, and was shortlisted for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award. Visit Ilya’s profile in Yetzirah’s Jewish Poets Database.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/poetic-lineages-with-ilya-kaminsky/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T170000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250831T172102Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250831T172106Z
UID:10000053-1756627200-1756659600@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"Telling the Soul’s Stories: Spiritual Anecdote & Autobiography" with Joy Ladin
DESCRIPTION:“Telling the Soul’s Stories: Spiritual Anecdote & Autobiography” with Joy Ladin  \n\n\n\nSpiritual experience often feels private\, isolating\, uncommunicable. Spiritual autobiographies\, from anecdotes to full-blown memoirs\, use storytelling techniques to break down this sense of isolation\, offering others glimpses of our own struggles and exaltations\, and\, more importantly\, because readers interpret narratives by identifying with characters and projecting our own lives onto events in stories\, turning our private experiences into stories through which others can recognize\, reflect on\, and be inspired in their own spiritual journeys. In this generative writing workshop we will look at examples of spiritual anecdote and autobiography\, discuss the communicability and incommunicability of spiritual experience\, and practice using midrash\, haiku\, and self-inventory to develop our own spiritual narratives. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Cost\n\n\n\n\n3 recorded classes\, followed by recorded Q&As\n\n\n\nhandouts with representative texts and prompts to guide your writing\n\n\n\n\n$72—standard registration \n\n\n\n$59—discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Joy\n\n\n\nJoy Ladin has published ten books of poetry\, including National Jewish Book Award winner The Book of Anna\, Lambda Literary Award finalists Transmigration and Impersonation\, and newly published Shekhinah Speaks  (Selva Oscura). She is also the author of a memoir\, National Jewish Book Award finalist Through the Door of Life; and Lambda Literary and Triangle Award finalist The Soul of the Stranger.Visit Joy’s profile in Yetzirah’s Jewish Poets Database.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/telling-the-souls-stories-spiritual-anecdote-autobiography-with-joy-ladin/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20250831T170000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250831T171324Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250831T171445Z
UID:10000052-1756627200-1756659600@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"The Golden Chain: An Introduction to Yiddish Poetry" with Danny Kraft
DESCRIPTION:The Golden Chain: An Introduction to Yiddish Poetry with Danny Kraft \n\n\n\nCurious about Yiddish poetry? Eager to draw on Yiddish literature as inspiration for your own writing and art? No language or cultural background is required for this four-week\, online course introducing the richness\, beauty\, and diversity of Yiddish poetry. Together we’ll read and discuss great Yiddish poems and writers\, exploring the themes\, contexts\, and concerns of modern Yiddish poetry and their meaning for our own lives and labors. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Costs\n\n\n\n\n4 recorded classes\n\n\n\nhandouts with representative texts and prompts to guide your writing\n\n\n\n\n$90—standard registration \n\n\n\n$74—discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Danny\n\n\n\nDaniel Kraft is a writer\, poet\, translator\, and essayist. He holds a master’s degree in Jewish studies from Harvard Divinity School\, where he was a resident at the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions. His poems and essays appear in a number of publications including Image\, Jewish Currents\, EcoTheo Review\, and Peripheries; his translations of Yiddish\, along with brief personal and critical essays\, can be found in his newsletter\, Di Freyd Fun Yidishn Vort/The Joy of the Yiddish Word. In addition to writing and translating\, Daniel has worked as a full-time Director of Education at synagogues across the American South\, and as an educator at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow\, Poland.Visit Danny’s profile in Yetzirah’s Jewish Poets Database.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/the-golden-chain-an-introduction-to-yiddish-poetry-with-danny-kraft/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250212T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250212T163000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20251027T195010Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251028T133351Z
UID:10000064-1739368800-1739377800@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"In the beginnings: Writing in Conversation with Sacred Texts" with Jessica Jacobs
DESCRIPTION:In the beginnings: Writing in Conversation with Sacred Texts \n\n\n\nTexts 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. \n\n\n\nCo-Sponsored by Lilith \n\n\n\nWorkshop Cost\n\n\n\n$54—standard registration$45—18% discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Jessica\n\n\n\nJessica 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. \n\n\n\nJessica 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.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/in-the-beginnings-writing-in-conversation-with-sacred-texts-with-jessica-jacobs/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
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LOCATION:
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250212T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250212T163000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250903T215624Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250903T215628Z
UID:10000059-1739368800-1739377800@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"Songs of the Grass: Exploring Jewish Ecopoetry" with Hila Ratzabi
DESCRIPTION:“Each and every grass has a song” – Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav \n\n\n\nThe Jewish environmental movement has sought to excavate and breathe new life into ancient texts that call us to right relationship with this fragile and holy earth. Jewish poets vividly describe the human encounter with plants\, animals\, and the elements where they often find intimations of the Divine or cause for protest on behalf of the non-human world. Together we’ll read poetry and other Jewish writings that will inspire our own experiments with ecopoetry. Some poets we will read include Marge Piercy\, Muriel Rukeyser\, Alicia Ostriker\, Adrienne Rich\, Denise Levertov\, Stanley Moss\, Stuart Kestenbaum\, Phillip Levine\, Mónica Gomery\, and more! We’ll engage in writing exercises\, some of which will take us outside to our local environments to allow us to listen to\, and translate\, the voices of the earth. You will come away with a deepened appreciation for Jewish wisdom on the environment and a number of poem drafts that will help you envision your personal Torah of the earth. \n\n\n\n“Songs of the Grass: Exploring Jewish Ecopoetry was a powerful class for me to take when I was working on a project related to climate justice and responding with bravery to emotions around climate change. Looking at these issues through a Jewish lens added depth to my writing and thinking. Hila created a thoughtful and engaged community in the course\, and sessions included rich discussion of source texts followed by writing exercises that were both generative and nourishing.”– Elisa McCool\, previous participant in Songs of the Grass \n\n\n\nWorkshop Dates & Cost\n\n\n\n$126—standard registration$90—18% discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Hila\n\n\n\nHila Ratzabi’s first full-length book of poetry\, There Are Still Woods (June Road Press\, 2022)\, won a 2023 gold Nautilus Award and was a finalist for a National Indie Excellence Award. She was a finalist for the North American Review’s 2021 Terry Tempest Williams Prize in Creative Nonfiction\, for the Fourth Genre Steinberg Essay Prize (2019)\, and for the Fifth Annual Narrative Magazine Poetry Contest (2013). She is the author of a poetry chapbook\, The Apparatus of Visible Things (2009). Her poetry has been published in Narrative\, Linebreak\, Alaska Quarterly Review\, The Adroit Journal\, and other journals\, and in The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry and Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology. She has received scholarships and fellowships to the Willapa Bay AiR residency\, the Vermont Studio Center\, the Crater Lake National Park residency\, and the Arctic Circle Residency. Ratzabi is the former editor-in-chief and poetry editor of Storyscape and holds an MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. She was director of virtual content & programs at Ritualwell.org (2015–2023). Ratzabi is currently director of communications at North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe\, IL. She lives in Oak Park\, IL\, with her husband and two children. Visit Hila’s profile in our Discover Jewish Poets database.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/songs-of-the-grass-exploring-jewish-ecopoetry-with-hila-ratzabi/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
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LOCATION:
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221103T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221103T163000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250903T220127Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260223T203514Z
UID:10000060-1667484000-1667493000@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:"Translating Worlds\, Exploring Words" with Joanna Chen
DESCRIPTION:“A translation can serve as a lens into the underground life of another culture”– Cynthia Ozick  \n\n\n\nLiterary translation involves a deep reading of words; it is the natural companion of both reading and writing. The art and practice of literary translation enriches and informs our own writing. It provides a unique perspective on words we thought we knew\, holding each one up to the light\, examining it and deepening its presence.   \n\n\n\nIn this generative workshop we will examine and explore translated poetry from Yiddish\, Hebrew and other languages\, opening doors to other worlds\, both past and present. \n\n\n\nTogether we will discuss what translation means to us and how to approach it. We will experiment with our own translations of poetry\, letting our love for language guide us. No prior experience necessary\, all welcome.  \n\n\n\nHandouts will be sent with the texts to be discussed. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nWorkshop Dates & Cost\n\n\n\n$36—standard registration$30—18% discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Joanna\n\n\n\nJoanna Chen’s full-length poetry translations include Less Like a Dove (Shearsman Books)\, Frayed Light (Wesleyan University Press\, finalist for The Jewish Book Award)\,and but first I call your name (Shearsman Books). She is also the translator of My Wild Garden (Penguin/Random House) and Shooting in America (forthcoming with Penguin\, winner of The Paper Brigade Award for New Israeli Fiction). Her work has been published in Asymptote\, Waxwing\, Mantis and La Piccioletta Barca\, among numerous others. Her poetry\, essays and interviews have been published in The Los Angeles Review of Books\, The Washington Monthly\, Lilith and Narratively\, among several others. She teaches literary translation at The Helicon School of Poetry in Tel Aviv.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/translating-worlds-exploring-words-with-joanna-chen/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
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LOCATION:
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221103T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221103T163000
DTSTAMP:20260428T113624
CREATED:20250804T144836Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260330T163554Z
UID:10000007-1667484000-1667493000@yetzirahpoets.org
SUMMARY:“To See What Is Heard: Concretizing the Spiritual & the Abstract” with Yehoshua November
DESCRIPTION:In this generative workshop\, we will look at a Hasidic mystical text that explores the relationship between imagery and abstraction during the watershed moment when the Torah was received at Mount Sinai. Then\, taking our cue from Hasidic mysticism and contemporary poetry\, we will attempt to harness the dynamic interplay of imagery and abstraction as we work toward generating several new poems. \n\n\n\nWorkshop Dates & Cost\n\n\n\n$36—standard registration$30—18% discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here) \n\n\n\n*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all\, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. \n\n\n\nAbout Yehoshua\n\n\n\nYehoshua November is the author of God’s Optimism (a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize)\, Two Worlds Exist (a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and the Paterson Poetry Prize)\, and The Concealment of Endless Light (Orison Books\, 2024). His work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine\, Harvard Divinity Bulletin\, The Sun\, VQR\, TriQuarterly\, and on National Public Radio and Poetry Unbound. November teaches creative writing at Rutgers University and Touro University and serves as mashpia\, spiritual mentor\, at Chabad of Teaneck. Visit Yehoshua’s profile in our Discover Jewish Poets database.
URL:https://yetzirahpoets.org/event/to-see-what-is-heard-concretizing-the-spiritual-the-abstract-with-yehoshua-november-2/
CATEGORIES:Asynchronous Events
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