We cannot, we must not forget.
In this moment of rising hatred toward individuals and communities of “otherness,” we are drawn to the writing of Yerra Sugarman and her lessons for practical guidance in navigating modern cruelties. Her most recent poetry collection has been described as "a necessary book in a time of rising antisemitism and Holocaust denial” by the Jewish Books Council.
Yerra, a National Jewish Book Award finalist, scholar, poet, and daughter of Holocaust survivors, will read from her book Aunt Bird. Hudson Valley poet Jared Harél will also read from his books, which draw on themes of relationships, daily musings, and truth. They will welcome your questions and conversation to round out the event.
This event is free to attend, but we ask you to RSVP here for planning purposes. Copies of Yerra’s and Jared’s books will be available for purchase and signing.
About Aunt Bird
In Aunt Bird, Sugarman asks her aunt Feiga Maler, murdered in the Nazi-occupied Krakow Ghetto at age twenty-three, for practical guidance in navigating cruelty at the American border, as the world forgets–and denies–what only the aging, last generation of Holocaust survivors can recall for us.
The collection has garnered praise from the Jewish Books Council, won American Book Fest’s 2022 Best Book Award for General Poetry, and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and New England Poetry Club Motton Book Prize.
About Yerra
Yerra Sugarman’s three volumes of poetry are: Aunt Bird (Four Way Books, 2022), which won American Book Fest’s 2022 Best Book Award for General Poetry, and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in Poetry; The Bag of Broken Glass (Sheep Meadow, 2008), poems from which received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship; and Forms of Gone (Sheep Meadow, 2002), winner of PEN American Center’s Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature, and is the daughter of Holocaust survivors. An American poet and essayist, she lives in New York City. She serves as a board member for Yetzirah: A Hearth for Jewish Poetry.
About Jared
Jared Harél is the author, most recently, of Let Our Bodies Change the Subject, which was selected by Kwame Dawes as the Winner of the 2022 Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry (University of Nebraska Press, 2023). He’s been awarded the ‘Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize’ from American Poetry Review, the ‘William Matthews Poetry Prize’ from Asheville Poetry Review, as well as two Individual Artist Grants from Queens Council on the Arts. Jared’s poems have recently appeared in such journals as 32 Poems, Beloit Poetry Journal, Electric Literature, Harvard Review Online, Ploughshares, Poem-a-Day, The Southern Review and The Sun. He teaches writing, plays drums, and lives with his family in Westchester, NY. Follow him on Instagram: @jaredharel