Events
Yetzirah Conference for Jewish Poetry: view a media archive of public events from the 2023 conference, which was held June 21-23 at UNC-Asheville. I spoke on the Writing Contemporary Midrash panel with Dan Bellm, Sally Rosen Kindred, Sharon Dolin, Heather Altfeld, and Nomi Stone, and gave a reading with Rodger Kamenetz, Aviya Kushner, Sam Taylor, and Joanna Fuhrman.
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Author Archives: nancohen
Slouching toward Jeopardy!, part 3
I assumed you would take it for granted that in addition to being a scavenger of books, I was also a fairly obsessive and indiscriminate reader. In these days of concern about fake news, I look ruefully upon my younger … Continue reading
Posted in Jeopardy!
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A Newborn Girl at Passover
When Yael, the daughter of my friends Lisa and Aaron, was born, I wrote this poem for her. She celebrates her twentieth birthday at the end of Passover this year. “A Newborn Girl at Passover” at the Academy of American Poets To … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Slouching toward Jeopardy!, part 2
Whenever I read applications for poetry-related things–fellowships, residencies, academic programs–there are personal statements that begin by invoking the childhood roots of the writer’s connection to books, literature, reading or writing, e.g., “Ever since I learned to read at age three…” or … Continue reading
Posted in Jeopardy!
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Slouching toward Jeopardy!, part 1
Over the last few years, I’ve consumed a lot of the small subgenre of online writing that is Jeopardy! contestant narratives. Josh Fruhlinger, the writer of the indispensable Comics Curmudgeon blog, observes in his own writeup, “There seems to be some kind of … Continue reading
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Book giveaway winner
The winner of the book giveaway, chosen at random from among all eligible entries*, is Cantor Sarah Sager of Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood, Ohio. She was nominated by Kathleen Gisser, who cited Cantor Sager as her family’s “favorite clergy … Continue reading
Posted in Unfinished City
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Spring break
I just read Philip Nel’s blog post on Kieran Setiya’s “The Midlife Crisis” (pointed there by a guest post on the late Alison Piepmeier’s blog, but that’s another story), with its distinction between telic and atelic activities (those with an … Continue reading
Posted in good reads, life in general
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Book giveaway: for clergy and clergy-in-training (deadline April 3)
I’d like to send a copy of Unfinished City to someone who serves as a religious leader, or who is preparing to become one, in any tradition that takes the Torah as a significant text (i.e., any flavor of Judaism, Islam, Christianity, … Continue reading
Posted in books, Unfinished City
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“What writers really do when they write”
Reading this piece by George Saunders in the Guardian about how writers feel their way toward what they didn’t consciously know they meant to write is like reading a poem or a novel and coming across one of those luminous, heartbreaking lines … Continue reading
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I keep staring at this cover the way you stare at a newborn baby
And I’m so thrilled to be working with Gunpowder Press, whose books are so thoughtfully selected and edited, as well as so beautifully produced. I love the story of how they got started; I knew the late David Allen Case … Continue reading
Posted in Unfinished City
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Renga for Obama
The Harvard Review is hosting a celebratory “Renga for Obama” on the conclusion of our 44th president’s second term. A renga is a Japanese collaborative form consisting of linked stanzas composed in pairs. A new pair of stanzas appears each day—a traditional haiku(which … Continue reading
Nan Cohen 