Announcing "101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium" [eds. Matthew E. Silverman and Nancy Naomi Carlson]

101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium edited by Matthew E. Silverman and Nancy Naomi Carlson (Ashland Poetry Press) is here.

The editors write:

<<< In the face of rising antisemitism, we feel this anthology is necessary now more than ever.

We have selected one poem from 101 contemporary poets, both Jewish and not Jewish, writing with a Jewish sensibility. Our contributors include both the next generation of Jewish voices, as well as established voices, including such notables as Ellen Bass, Bruce Bond, Sharon Dolin, Marilyn Hacker, Edward Hirsch, Jane Hirshfield, Ilya Kaminsky, Joy Ladin, David Lehman, Matthew Lippman, Jean Nordhaus, Alicia Ostriker, Linda Pastan and Marge Piercy. We have tried to cover a wide variety of themes, with only one or two poems devoted to the same topic, including inter-marriage, the Holocaust, Jewish rituals (including burial customs), Sabbath and holiday traditions, Torah, Midrash, traditional Jewish foods, Yiddish, Hebrew and Ladino, and anti-Semitism, among many other themes.

What makes this anthology unique is that there is no definitive anthology of contemporary Jewish poetry that represents over 100 poets writing from the year 2000 and on, as well as the fact that the majority of these poems have never before appeared in print. >>>

"Traditional and radical, secular and holy, the poems in 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium come to us just as we need them. The poets here celebrate a culture and caution against hatred, all the while making incredible art. Silverman and Carlson have gathered a stellar and diverse group of poets and poetic visions. "

 —Denise Duhamel

About the Editors:

Nancy Naomi Carlson is a poet, translator, essayist, and editor.An Infusion of Violets, her second full-length poetry collection, was published by Seagull Books (2019), and named a “New & Noteworthy” title by the New York Times Book Review. 

Matthew E. Silverman teaches at Gordon State College and he is editor of Blue Lyra Press. He is co-editor, with Deborah Ager, of Bloomsbury’s Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry. 

from the book:

Gennady Katsov
An Invective

Do not build cities where cemeteries once stood:
In their infrastructures, their pipes and foundations,
Horror still grows that oozes out of the corpses,
And the storehouse of faith and infidelity clogs up.
Do not build cities over places of execution,
Nor over sanctuaries, and never over a battlefield,
For no desire will be so fulfilled, for what’s to come,
Its outcome will be made only more atrocious.
Nor should cities be established in times of confusion
Or during periods of crisis, or havoc, or epidemic:
They will emerge like phantoms out of nightmares
In the form of bats that come to one in bad dreams.
And this someone who will eventually awaken among
Necropoli, places of execution, barracks, Place d’Armes,
That are everywhere and always, deeded to the future,
Will not stumble over streets paved with grave stones.

Translated from the Russian by Alex Cigale

Comments

[Jana Dodson]

I was very moved by the translation by Alex Cigale. Thank you.