Rachel Tzvia Back will read from her work at 7 p.m. today, March 2, in Arts Building Room 215 in a presentation titled, “Placing the Voice: The Personal and the Political, Israel 2006.”
The Buffalo-born poet, who lives in the Galilee, is the author of several collections. Her latest collection, Buffalo Poems, published by Duration Press in 2003, follows the cycle of violence in Israel and Palestine over the past years and how it has defined the lives of the people there.
According to one review, “the personal and political merge in her lyrical poetry, as her framing remarks contextualize the complexities and demands of place, the role of the poet in Israeli society and the unrelenting bond to the land.”
Back's collection, Azimuth, was published in English in 2001 by Sheep Meadow Press and in Hebrew in 2000 by Kibbutz HaMeuchad Press. Last spring, Back's translations of pre-eminent Hebrew poet Lea Goldberg – published in Lea Goldberg: Selected Poetry and Drama (Toby Press) – were awarded a PEN translation grant.
In addition, Back's poetry and translations have appeared in numerous journals in America and abroad and in several anthologies, including The Defiant Muse: Hebrew Feminist Poems from Antiquity to the Present and Dreaming the Actual: Contemporary Fiction and poetry by Israeli Women Writers.
In 2002, Back took part in a reading series that brought Israeli poets to America to present their works. Titled “Poetry of a Punished Land,” the series was presented at Wesleyan, Princeton and Harvard universities. Back also has served as a guest writer at numerous American universities.