Shirley Kaufman

"Progressive, passionate, and unfailingly feminist, Kaufman is a breathtakingly fine poet."--The Nation"If someone is going to be exalted as a representative voice of Jewish or Israeli life in contemporary American poetry, one couldn't ask for a more insightful or mature writer to assume such an impossible role."--The Jerusalem Post"Kaufman approaches Jerusalem's bitter memories, contested histories and joyous unfoldings with a wary love."--Publishers WeeklyShirley Kaufman utilizes enigmatic symbolism from the Book of Ezekiel as she writes into the themes of exile and emigration that have marked her work since she moved to Israel thirty-six years ago. Her new poems attempt to bring meaning to an irrational world--the unrelenting passage of human life, the risks of artistic endeavoring, and the artist's struggle with the loss of sight and memory. After nearly four decades of writing and publishing, Kaufman maintains a lightness of touch even while her poetry takes on an increased awareness of danger and urgency.. . . I don't want tolook back but can't see aheadfrom where I am nowand now is whatever I didn't doyesterday. Not what I live in.Now is the fearthere won't be anythingafter now.Shirley Kaufman was born in Seattle, lived in San Francisco, and immigrated to Jerusalem in 1973. Eight volumes of her award-winning poetry have been published in the United States, three by Copper Canyon Press. She lives in Jerusalem, Israel.

Shirley Kaufman has long been a house favorite at Copper Canyon, and we're celebrating her new book with a special price of $12.00.Born in the United States, Shirley Kaufman has lived for the past 20 years in Jerusalem, a city split by cultural and religious fault lines. In direct, sensitive language, Kaufman's poems occupy the shifting border between ordinary life and violence, Palestinian and Jew, young love and aging companionship. They grapple with the meaning of routine, of family, and of life among a daily existence punctured with bombs.Sometimes I need to be nowhere. A placewithout history.A life of wanderinglike the desert generation of Moses.The wandering Jew. But that brings meback into history.Sealed rooms. Windowscriss-crossed with tape so the glass won't shatter.A dark noose of memory around my neck.Coffins covered with flags and flagsburning. I need to be nowhere.--from SanctumThere's such solidity to Shirley Kaufman's writing. . . . You feel in conversation with someone wise and passionate, someone you can trust.--Poetry FlashKaufman's poems flourish in the spaces between what is familiar and unfamiliar, between life in Israel and life in the U.S., and in those moments when the differences between Palestinians and Jews, mothers and daughters, history and the immediate moment play themselves out.--American Book ReviewKaufman is adept at revealing the human face behind politics, carefully accumulating familiar details to make a large portrait.--Publishers WeeklyShirley Kaufman is the author of seven books of poetry and several translations from the Hebrew. Her awards include the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America and the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award. A native of Seattle, Kaufman now lives in Jerusalem.