Marcela Sulak will read from and discuss two collections of poetry that explore the role of womanhood and motherhood in the Israeli National Narrative. Her own Decency uses documentary methods to think through the ways the individual operates in relation to society’s mores and harms, from the Sumerian queen Puabi to contemporary female recruits to the Israeli intelligence’s “Honeytrap” operation. Twenty Girls to Envy Me revisits the founding Biblical narratives of the Jewish People, and offer exciting, inclusive new readings, as the poems grapple with mothering stepchildren and raising soldiers.

Marcela Sulak is the author of three collections of poetry, four book-length poetry translations from Hebrew, French, and Czech, and the co-editor of the 2015 Rose Metal Press title: Family Resemblance: An Anthology and Exploration of 8 Hybrid Literary Genres. She teaches American Literature and Creative Writing at Bar-Ilan University.