Three Poems Of Mine That Should Never Have Become As Relevant As They Are Now Jun 16, 2022 writing & 2022 Sometimes you publish a poem in response to the current moment, whatever that may be, and then the moment passes, and the poem no longer feels as Deciding whether something should be a poem or an essay Jun 2, 2022 Writing & 2022 When I wrote a couple of posts ago about the writers who influenced me early on in terms of craft, I tried to focus on those aspects of making a An Essay That Took Me More Than Thirty Years To Write Has Been Published! Apr 11, 2022 my work & 2022 I am very excited that an essay it took me nearly thirty years to write, “The First Time I Told Someone,” was published earlier this month by A Provocation: Christianness (Not Christianity) Is To Jews And The People Of Other Non-Christian Religions As Whiteness Is To People Of Color Apr 7, 2022 jewish & 2022 Last year, at the end of a meeting I attended, the presiding officer, a Jewish woman, in the process of wishing attendees happy holidays and happy What Writers Have Influenced Your Work? Mar 24, 2022 my work & 2022 I don’t think I’ve read an interview with a writer where the interviewer did not ask some version of this question. In responding to John What I’ve Been Thinking About Ukraine Mar 7, 2022 jewish & 2022 Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine casts its long shadow over everything I do these days, even the small, mundane moments, like washing the dishes When Did You Start Writing? Jan 15, 2022 my work & poetry & 2022 In March of 2020, just before the pandemic shutdown, I received from John Wisniewski the first two of the seven or eight questions that would My Pandemic Reading List Jul 21, 2021 2021 & reading It’s been nearly eighteen months since the pandemic shutdown began last March. One of the ways I’ve managed to stay sane, along with the nightly—or Thirteen Thoughts About Palestine, Israel, and Antisemitism Jun 11, 2021 2021 & jewish Anyone who knows anything about how not just the presence of Jewish human beings, but also the mere idea of Jews and Judaism, have been experienced Craft Talk 3: Quincy Troupe’s Rhythm Apr 19, 2021 2021 & poetry I’ve been reading The Architecture of Language, by Quincy Troupe, and I have been fascinated by how rhythm and syntax interact in the way he builds The Music I’d Like to Put Back Into My Life Dec 26, 2020 my work Those are my hands over the keys at the grand piano that stood in the parlor of the dorm I lived in when I attended Edinburgh University in the The Way Academia Is Supposed To Work Dec 22, 2020 my work & education & union issues I can’t believe I’m writing this at 3:30 AM. I woke up about a half hour ago from a very disturbing dream, in which the character with whom I Publication News: Three New Poems in Two Lovely Publications Nov 26, 2020 my work You’d think that being shut in during the pandemic would have left me enough time to keep this website up-to-date, right? Hah! I should, for Medical Culture and Its Effects on Doctors and Patients Oct 29, 2020 events On the evening of October 22, I had the pleasure of moderating a reading and discussion with two fine writers, Dr. Zinaria Williams and Elizabeth Antisemitism Has Always Been a Part of My Life - 1 Oct 26, 2020 jewish (I wrote the original version of this post at least four years ago, but events of the last couple of years, along with what I wrote in my last post My Response to The Erasure of Antisemitism in Namrata Poddar’s Article in the Recent Issue of Poets & Writers Oct 12, 2020 poetry & race & jewish In an article called ”Return to the MFA: A Call for Systemic Change in the Literary Arts”, which Poets & Writers published in its September/October Lines That Didn’t Make The Cut: Sometimes It’s Just a Big Mess Aug 5, 2020 poetry & my work I don’t remember where the first two lines of this came from, but somehow it ended up being a very long poem spoken mostly by a woman deciding to from “The Lines That Antisemitism and Racism Draw” Aug 1, 2020 jewish Today is Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath of Consolation. Last year at this time, I was on a family vacation in Europe, sitting in our host’s dining Reading “The Veil and The Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam,” by Fatima Mernissi Jul 27, 2020 islam & religion & quotes I read Mernissi’s book some years ago, and it was an instructive journey into my own ignorance about Islam, particularly about an aspect of that Commonplace Question #2: Are The Poems Part of a Conversation? Jul 24, 2020 my work & poetry & commonplace questions This question, from Commonplace episode #2, Rachel’s interview with Nick Flynn, brought me back to a conversation I had with a friend named Ellie