Wednesday’s WIP: Celebrating Grace Schulman’s Newest Book

WithoutaClaimI’ve had the good fortune to meet a number of very talented, very generous writers through my (non-teaching) day job at The City University of New York. One of those writers is poet Grace Schulman, Distinguished Professor of English at CUNY’s Baruch College. Last Friday, at Grace’s kind invitation, I attended a party to celebrate the publication of her most recent collection, Without a Claim.

It was a lovely evening, not least because copies of the book were scattered around the room on small tables. They weren’t for sale, alas, but I stole a good long look. I’ve often found Grace’s Jewishly-inflected poetry especially moving, and one poem in the new book (“Havdalah”) is one I’m looking forward to revisiting many times once the copy I’ve ordered arrives.

Grace read just one poem for us on Friday evening: “Celebration.” A fitting poem for the occasion, to be sure. But I wasn’t alone in wishing that she’d read much more.

2 thoughts on “Wednesday’s WIP: Celebrating Grace Schulman’s Newest Book

  1. diana rosen says:

    I love Grace Schulman and her book, The Broken String, is something on my nightstand table at all times. She has this way of both being universal and specific that is (to me) the hallmark of a fine writer. And, she loves jazz! Thanks for posting this as I had not know she has a new book. Calling the bookstore now.

    1. Erika Dreifus says:

      That’s great to hear, Diana. Thanks for sharing!

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