Texts like the Torah and New Testament are often presented as not only sacred but inviolate and above reproach.
For many of us, this means these texts and their difficult subject matter can feel far from us, or so close and well known we can no longer really see them. Yet it is here we find the stories and rituals, commandments and prohibitions, that—whether or not we follow a religious tradition of our own—have shaped the world in which we live.
With close readings of work by poets including Marie Howe, Ada Limon, Leila Chatti, and Eleanor Wilner, in this workshop, Jessica will share how drawing on the ancient Jewish practice of midrashic inquiry, as well as the Jesuit practice of Ignatian Contemplation, can help us to delve into a text and find the stories and knowledge waiting beyond the surface layer of the page.
After a general conversation about the basics of Midrash, we will read and discuss a range of contemporary poems in the midrashic vein amid which I'll give a series of guided writing prompts. Though our literary examples will be poems, this is a workshop appropriate for writers of all levels and genres--good for anyone looking for new ways to engage with sacred texts like the Torah.
Jessica Jacobs
Jessica is the author of unalone, poems in conversation with the Book of Genesis (Four Way Books, March 2024); Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going (Four Way Books, 2019), named one of Library Journal‘s Best Poetry Books of the year, 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/RandomHouse.
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.