Jewish Women’s Voices Seminar: Jessica Jacobs, ‘Obsession & Awareness as Pathways to Poetry’
in Conversation with Dr Aviva Dautch
Date: 11 March 2025
Time: 1400-1530
Location: The Buttery, Wolfson College and Online via Zoom
Join American poet Jessica Jacobs, acclaimed author of unalone, Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going, and Pelvis with Distance, in conversation with poet and scholar Dr Aviva Dautch. Jacobs will read from her collections and share insights into how the work of each book led to the next and how her time in New Mexico’s high desert inspired her to weave the Torah into her poetic practice. Drawing on this practice, the seminar will conclude with a Midrashic writing exercise—a Jewish mode of creative interpretation/exegesis that can be useful to writers and scholars of all traditions.
Speaker Details:
Jessica Jacobs is the author of unalone, poems in conversation with the Book of Genesis (Four Way Books, March 2024), named one of Library Journal‘s Best Poetry Books of the year; Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going (Four Way Books, 2019), also one of Library Journal‘s Best Poetry Books of the year, and winner of the Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award from Southern Illinois University and the Goldie Award from the Golden Crown Literary Society, and a finalist for the Brockman-Campbell, American Fiction, Eric Hoffer, and Julie Suk Book Awards. Her debut collection, Pelvis with Distance (White Pine Press), a biography-in-poems of Georgia O’Keeffe, won the New Mexico Book Award in Poetry, was an Over the Rainbow selection by the American Library Association and a finalist for the Lambda Literary and Julie Suk Awards. Her chapbook In Whatever Light Left to Us was published by Sibling Rivalry Press. She co-authored Write It!, a collection of writing prompts from Spruce Books, an imprint of Penguin/Random House.
Jessica holds an M.F.A. from Purdue University, where she served as the Editor-in-Chief of Sycamore Review, and a B.A. from Smith College. Her poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in publications including Orion, Ploughshares, Image, and New England Review. She leads workshops around the country, teaching for programs including the Fine Arts Work Center, UNC-Wilmington’s MFA program, and Writing Workshops in Greece, and serves on the North Carolina Writers’ Network Board of Trustees.
She is the founder and executive director of Yetzirah: A Hearth for Jewish Poetry.
Dr Aviva Dautch is the Executive Director of Jewish Renaissance, the UK's Jewish arts and culture quarterly. She lectures on modern Jewish literature at the London School of Jewish Studies and JW3 and contributes to programmes on BBC Radio 4. She is an award-winning poet whose residencies and commissions have included The British Museum, The National Gallery and Bradford and Hay Literature Festivals. Aviva is the Jewish Women’s Voices OCLW Visiting Scholar for 2025-6.
Further Details and Contacts:
This event is free and open to all; however, registration is recommended (required for online attendance).
Any queries regarding this event should be addressed to OCLW Events Manager, Dr Eleri Anona Watson.
in Conversation with Dr Aviva Dautch
Date: 11 March 2025
Time: 1400-1530
Location: The Buttery, Wolfson College and Online via Zoom
Join American poet Jessica Jacobs, acclaimed author of unalone, Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going, and Pelvis with Distance, in conversation with poet and scholar Dr Aviva Dautch. Jacobs will read from her collections and share insights into how the work of each book led to the next and how her time in New Mexico’s high desert inspired her to weave the Torah into her poetic practice. Drawing on this practice, the seminar will conclude with a Midrashic writing exercise—a Jewish mode of creative interpretation/exegesis that can be useful to writers and scholars of all traditions.
Speaker Details:
Jessica Jacobs is the author of unalone, poems in conversation with the Book of Genesis (Four Way Books, March 2024), named one of Library Journal‘s Best Poetry Books of the year; Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going (Four Way Books, 2019), also one of Library Journal‘s Best Poetry Books of the year, and winner of the Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award from Southern Illinois University and the Goldie Award from the Golden Crown Literary Society, and a finalist for the Brockman-Campbell, American Fiction, Eric Hoffer, and Julie Suk Book Awards. Her debut collection, Pelvis with Distance (White Pine Press), a biography-in-poems of Georgia O’Keeffe, won the New Mexico Book Award in Poetry, was an Over the Rainbow selection by the American Library Association and a finalist for the Lambda Literary and Julie Suk Awards. Her chapbook In Whatever Light Left to Us was published by Sibling Rivalry Press. She co-authored Write It!, a collection of writing prompts from Spruce Books, an imprint of Penguin/Random House.
Jessica holds an M.F.A. from Purdue University, where she served as the Editor-in-Chief of Sycamore Review, and a B.A. from Smith College. Her poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in publications including Orion, Ploughshares, Image, and New England Review. She leads workshops around the country, teaching for programs including the Fine Arts Work Center, UNC-Wilmington’s MFA program, and Writing Workshops in Greece, and serves on the North Carolina Writers’ Network Board of Trustees.
She is the founder and executive director of Yetzirah: A Hearth for Jewish Poetry.
Dr Aviva Dautch is the Executive Director of Jewish Renaissance, the UK's Jewish arts and culture quarterly. She lectures on modern Jewish literature at the London School of Jewish Studies and JW3 and contributes to programmes on BBC Radio 4. She is an award-winning poet whose residencies and commissions have included The British Museum, The National Gallery and Bradford and Hay Literature Festivals. Aviva is the Jewish Women’s Voices OCLW Visiting Scholar for 2025-6.
Further Details and Contacts:
This event is free and open to all; however, registration is recommended (required for online attendance).
Any queries regarding this event should be addressed to OCLW Events Manager, Dr Eleri Anona Watson.
in Conversation with Dr Aviva Dautch
Date: 11 March 2025
Time: 1400-1530
Location: The Buttery, Wolfson College and Online via Zoom
Join American poet Jessica Jacobs, acclaimed author of unalone, Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going, and Pelvis with Distance, in conversation with poet and scholar Dr Aviva Dautch. Jacobs will read from her collections and share insights into how the work of each book led to the next and how her time in New Mexico’s high desert inspired her to weave the Torah into her poetic practice. Drawing on this practice, the seminar will conclude with a Midrashic writing exercise—a Jewish mode of creative interpretation/exegesis that can be useful to writers and scholars of all traditions.
Speaker Details:
Jessica Jacobs is the author of unalone, poems in conversation with the Book of Genesis (Four Way Books, March 2024), named one of Library Journal‘s Best Poetry Books of the year; Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going (Four Way Books, 2019), also one of Library Journal‘s Best Poetry Books of the year, and winner of the Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award from Southern Illinois University and the Goldie Award from the Golden Crown Literary Society, and a finalist for the Brockman-Campbell, American Fiction, Eric Hoffer, and Julie Suk Book Awards. Her debut collection, Pelvis with Distance (White Pine Press), a biography-in-poems of Georgia O’Keeffe, won the New Mexico Book Award in Poetry, was an Over the Rainbow selection by the American Library Association and a finalist for the Lambda Literary and Julie Suk Awards. Her chapbook In Whatever Light Left to Us was published by Sibling Rivalry Press. She co-authored Write It!, a collection of writing prompts from Spruce Books, an imprint of Penguin/Random House.
Jessica holds an M.F.A. from Purdue University, where she served as the Editor-in-Chief of Sycamore Review, and a B.A. from Smith College. Her poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in publications including Orion, Ploughshares, Image, and New England Review. She leads workshops around the country, teaching for programs including the Fine Arts Work Center, UNC-Wilmington’s MFA program, and Writing Workshops in Greece, and serves on the North Carolina Writers’ Network Board of Trustees.
She is the founder and executive director of Yetzirah: A Hearth for Jewish Poetry.
Dr Aviva Dautch is the Executive Director of Jewish Renaissance, the UK's Jewish arts and culture quarterly. She lectures on modern Jewish literature at the London School of Jewish Studies and JW3 and contributes to programmes on BBC Radio 4. She is an award-winning poet whose residencies and commissions have included The British Museum, The National Gallery and Bradford and Hay Literature Festivals. Aviva is the Jewish Women’s Voices OCLW Visiting Scholar for 2025-6.
Further Details and Contacts:
This event is free and open to all; however, registration is recommended (required for online attendance).
Any queries regarding this event should be addressed to OCLW Events Manager, Dr Eleri Anona Watson.