Why the Timeless Matters

I grew up in a Hebrew-speaking home where the ancient was often discussed at the dining-room table. We talked about the deep roots of everything, and in the wider world, I have missed that conversation. My sense is that many of us are missing substantive conversations about books and ideas and philosophies, and how they connect to our individual and communal hopes and fears. While many publications focus on what is trending, I sometimes feel the timeless is lost in the worship of the timely.

I am the author of WOLF LAMB BOMB (Orison Books), a poetry collection in conversation with the Book of Isaiah, and The Grammar of God (Spiegel & Grau/ Penguin Random House), about the experience of reading the Bible in English after a lifetime of reading it in Hebrew. I write a column on language for The Forward; my essays and poems appear widely, and I also translate Hebrew poetry, for which I recently received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.  

My hope with this newsletter is to create a home for books I am thinking about and questions I am considering, and for conversations I wish I could have with other readers and writers—dead or alive—at the largest dining-room table ever. Topics will include international literature; how the ancient and the present connect; Jewish poetry and prose; why translation matters; and ideas and people who are worth a closer look.

Thank you for your interest and support. It means so much to me.

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