1/17/07

February 5th: David Cooper Features The Work of Rachel Eshed



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On February 5th, David Cooper will read from his recently published translation of Israeli poet Rachel Eshed's book Little Promises, published by Mayapple Press.

David Cooper earned an MA in creative writing at The City College of CUNY where he won the Academy of American Poets Prize. His ebooks are published by http://pulpbits.com and his poems are anthologized in XY Files: Poems On The Male Experience (Santa Fe: Sherman Asher Publishing, 1997). His translation of Israeli poet Rachel Eshed's second book Havtachot Ktanot (Little Promises) is published by Mayapple Press. His poems and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous periodicals. He was a finalist in the 1999 Snake Nation Press book contest, has been a semi-finalist in several other national contests, and was nominated for a 2006 Pushcart Prize. He is seeking a print publisher for his two ebooks of original poems.

Rachel Eshed's first book , Hayiti Rak Mifratz (I was Only An Inlet) was published in 1988 by Eked. In 1995 her second book, Havtachot Ktanot (Little Promises) was published by Kibbutz Hameuchad. In 1992 the manuscript of this book was awarded the ACUM Prize (ACUM is the Israeli equivalent of ASCAP) in a blindly judged competition. Poems from this book were published in daily newspapers and in the periodical Aley Siach (Shrub Leaves). In 1999 her third book, Shkufa Bachalon (Transparent In The Window), was published by Carmel. In 2001 the book was awarded the Bernstein Prize for Original Hebrew Poetry.Her fourth book, Regesh Hu Mutarot (Feeling Is A Luxury) is forthcoming next year from Carmel.

In its Hebrew original, this collection of intense erotic poetry won the 1992 ACUM prize in Israel. Novelist Tsipi Keller says, "It is hard to speak of Rachel Eshed's poetry without mentioning 'fire' : her poems virtually burn on the page, and David Cooper's renditions not only do justice to the original but magnify its richness." One of the poems in this book has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Click here for David Cooper's web site.

Click here for a sample of David Cooper's poetry.

Click here for a sample of Rachel Eshed's Poetry.