In her talk, Irena Klepfisz will describe some of the issues she faced when she began trying to incorporate Yiddish into her English poetry and prose. What seemed easy enough (just put it in! use it!) turned out to be more difficult and raised questions about appropriateness, intelligibility, and, perhaps most importantly, purpose. Klepfisz will illustrate her literary process and evolution through readings of her own work and the writings of other Yiddish women writers.

Please RSVP. This event is free and open to the public.

Irena Klepfisz is a poet, essayist, translator, editor and teacher. She is serving as Jewish Studies’ 2019 Sondra and Howard Bender Visiting Scholar and will be in residence at CU Boulder Feb. 20-21. She has taught at Barnard College, in the college program at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a women's maximum-security prison and elsewhere. Among her many other literary accomplishments, she was a founder and co-editor of the award-winning Conditions magazine, the Yiddish editor of the Jewish feminist Bridges, a major contributor to Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology and co-editor of The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology.

The annual Sondra and Howard Bender Visiting Scholar series is generously supported by the Sondra and Howard Bender Visiting Scholars Endowed Fund, honoring the lives of Sondra and Howard Bender. Special thank you to the Bender Foundation and the family of Eileen and Richard Greenberg for their generous support.

Irena Klepfisz's visit is hosted by the Program in Jewish Studies and cosponsored by the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures and the Department of Religious Studies. It is part of the Community Talks Series, made possible in part by a grant from Rose Community Foundation.