April 9 (Liberation/Freedom): Janlori Goldman, Dana Levin, Gail Newman, Yerra Sugarman

Janlori Goldman is the author of My Antarctica (Finishing Line, 2022) and her first full-length book Bread from a Stranger’s Oven (2017) was chosen by Laure-Anne Bosselaar for the White Pine Press Poetry Prize.  Her poems have been published widely, including in The Cortland Review, Split This Rock’s Poem-of-the-Week, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Rhino.  She teaches courses in public health and social justice, is a writing mentor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and lives with her sweetheart in Accord, New York. Visit Janlori’s profile in Yetzirah’s Jewish Poets Database.

Dana Levin’s fifth book is Now Do You Know Where You Are (Copper Canyon Press), a New York Times Editor’s Choice and Lannan Literary Selection. Recent books include Banana Palace and Sky Burial, which The New Yorker called “utterly her own and utterly riveting.” Levin is a grateful recipient of many honors, including those from the Library of Congress and the Guggenheim Foundation. Levin serves as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Maryville University, St. Louis. Visit Dana’s profile in Yetzirah’s Jewish Poets Database.

A child of Polish Holocaust survivors, Gail Newman was born in a Displaced Persons’ Camp in Lansberg, Germany. Her poems have appeared in journals including Nimrod International Journal, Prairie Schooner, and The Atlanta Review and in anthologies including Ghosts of the Holocaust. Blood Memory, chosen by Marge Piercy for the Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize, won the  Northern California Authors and Publishers Gold Award for Poetry and was the 2021 Best Book Awards Winner, “Poetry: Religious” category. Gail currently teaches genocide and Holocaust poetry workshops. Visit Gail’s profile in Yetzirah’s Jewish Poets Database.

Yerra Sugarman’s volumes of poetry are Aunt Bird (Four Way Books, 2022); The Bag of Broken Glass (Sheep Meadow, 2008); and Forms of Gone (Sheep Meadow, 2002). She has received an NEA Poetry Fellowship, the Poetry Society of America’s George Bogin and Cecil Hemley Memorial Awards. She holds an MFA in Painting from Columbia University, and a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston. She lives in New York City. Visit Yerra’s profile in Yetzirah’s Jewish Poets Database.