LAUGHING IN YIDDISH, poetry by Jamie Wendt
Publication Date: February 28, 2025
Paperback, 94 pages
ISBN: 978-1-956782-96-7
“To tell a long story short, Papa says, / and then proceeds to tell bits of a long story.” Poet Jamie Wendt does the same in her new collection Laughing in Yiddish, and through telling bits of her family’s journey from Russia to contemporary Chicago she enters upon the very long and often horrific story of Jewish history and tradition. Overcoming her relatives’ reticence to look backward (“No one talked about the past back then”) she teases out touching details of Jewish community life in America and beyond, sketching vivid portraits of the individuals who informed her life and identity. There is the sort of laughing one does to keep from crying, and while these poems are not themselves in Yiddish, the role of dark humor in the face of catastrophe that pervades that language and culture is evident throughout. And it seldom has felt so timely, and so necessary.
Praise for Jamie Wendt & Laughing in Yiddish
In these deeply felt and painstakingly crafted poems, a woman grapples with centuries of Jewish persecution and diaspora. A visitation of “[w]inged angels – my ancestors” opens the book, and it closes with a vow to keep telling the stories of “a wound bigger than the humid sky.” The poems span geography and time, from Wendt’s ancestral roots in Russia to her family’s more recent life in Chicago, passing through pogroms and flight to “poverty and perseverance.” Here you will find an insistence on history and an unflinching gaze on its horrors, held in equipoise with the blessings of family, faith, and tradition. Along the way you’ll hear stories told by Wendt’s grandfather and others, featuring everyday women and men struggling to survive, and more than a few golems. Throughout these poems, Yiddish words and phrases leaven writing that engages with formal tradition—pantoum, ghazal, triolet, ekphrasis—in order to “read and wrestle the past.” Laughing in Yiddish is a comfort and a tikkun olam, offering a way to endure and remember, remember and endure.
—Rebecca Foust, author of ONLY and Marin County Poet Laureate emerita
Jerusalem, Ancient Egypt, Lithuania, Chicago. Wendt’s striking poems conflate Jewish history, ancestral anecdotes, and contemporary experience. Laden with surprising and pleasurable leaps, Laughing in Yiddish movingly reminds us that the past haunts and enriches the present while the present preserves and sweetens the past. This is a luminous book!
—Yehoshua November, author of The Concealment of Endless Light
Drawing on the history of the Jewish people, stories passed down from family to family, the work of Jewish artists (painters, photographers) and personal experience, Jamie Wendt has written a riveting and moving collection of poems. In persona, personal, and ekphrastic poems, Wendt creates a rich portrait of the Jewish people, both in their homelands of eastern Europe and in their displacement to the West, most specifically the city of Chicago. These beautifully crafted poems move from lyric to narrative to Whitmanesque revelations of the people—their work, their rearing of children, the rituals of their faith that hold their communities together, the horrors of war and persecution, their resilience. Wendt manages to deftly reveal the details of these lives and deaths, while at the same time opening our minds and hearts to the big picture. A rare and beautiful book, and just maybe, in these perilous times of rising antisemitism and autocracy, a necessary one.
—Jim Peterson, author of The Horse Who Bears Me Away & Towheaded Stone Thrower
As a translator from Yiddish, I was thrilled to discover Jamie Wendt’s Laughing in Yiddish, a poignant collection of poems that beautifully bridges the vast expanse from the bustling streets of U.S. cities to the historic shtetls of the Pale of Settlement. Delving deep into Jewish history, weaving tales of joy and sorrow, Laughing in Yiddish juxtaposes lifestyles that are worlds apart, one where “In English, we learned words like tenement, factory, merchandise” with one where “Jews were shot point-blank at Babi Yar.” Wendt’s evocative verses make us reflect on the resilience and spirit of the Jewish people, particularly women, bearing witness to suffering and atrocities, yet retaining a constant spark of hope “in order to sing, to rise, to hallelujah.”
—Rose Waldman, Yiddish translator of Pioneers: The First Breach by S. An-Sky
About the Author
Jamie Wendt is the author of the poetry collection Fruit of the Earth (Main Street Rag, 2018), which won the 2019 National Federation of Press Women Book Award in Poetry. Laughing in Yiddish is her second book and was a finalist for the 2022 Philip Levine Prize in Poetry. Her poems and essays have been published in various literary journals and anthologies, including Feminine Rising, Lilith, Jet Fuel Review, the Forward, Green Mountains Review, Catamaran, Minerva Rising, Gyroscope Review, Minyan Magazine, and others. She contributes book reviews to the Jewish Book Council. Wendt was a third prize winner of the 2024 Reuben Rose Poetry Competition, she has received a Pushcart Prize Honorable Mention, and was nominated for Best Spiritual Literature. She was selected as an International Merit Award winner in the Atlanta Review 2022 International Poetry Competition. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska Omaha. She lives in Chicago with her husband and two children. Find her online at https://jamie-wendt.com/ or on Instagram @jamiewendtpoet.
Publication Date: February 28, 2025
Paperback, 94 pages
ISBN: 978-1-956782-96-7
“To tell a long story short, Papa says, / and then proceeds to tell bits of a long story.” Poet Jamie Wendt does the same in her new collection Laughing in Yiddish, and through telling bits of her family’s journey from Russia to contemporary Chicago she enters upon the very long and often horrific story of Jewish history and tradition. Overcoming her relatives’ reticence to look backward (“No one talked about the past back then”) she teases out touching details of Jewish community life in America and beyond, sketching vivid portraits of the individuals who informed her life and identity. There is the sort of laughing one does to keep from crying, and while these poems are not themselves in Yiddish, the role of dark humor in the face of catastrophe that pervades that language and culture is evident throughout. And it seldom has felt so timely, and so necessary.
Praise for Jamie Wendt & Laughing in Yiddish
In these deeply felt and painstakingly crafted poems, a woman grapples with centuries of Jewish persecution and diaspora. A visitation of “[w]inged angels – my ancestors” opens the book, and it closes with a vow to keep telling the stories of “a wound bigger than the humid sky.” The poems span geography and time, from Wendt’s ancestral roots in Russia to her family’s more recent life in Chicago, passing through pogroms and flight to “poverty and perseverance.” Here you will find an insistence on history and an unflinching gaze on its horrors, held in equipoise with the blessings of family, faith, and tradition. Along the way you’ll hear stories told by Wendt’s grandfather and others, featuring everyday women and men struggling to survive, and more than a few golems. Throughout these poems, Yiddish words and phrases leaven writing that engages with formal tradition—pantoum, ghazal, triolet, ekphrasis—in order to “read and wrestle the past.” Laughing in Yiddish is a comfort and a tikkun olam, offering a way to endure and remember, remember and endure.
—Rebecca Foust, author of ONLY and Marin County Poet Laureate emerita
Jerusalem, Ancient Egypt, Lithuania, Chicago. Wendt’s striking poems conflate Jewish history, ancestral anecdotes, and contemporary experience. Laden with surprising and pleasurable leaps, Laughing in Yiddish movingly reminds us that the past haunts and enriches the present while the present preserves and sweetens the past. This is a luminous book!
—Yehoshua November, author of The Concealment of Endless Light
Drawing on the history of the Jewish people, stories passed down from family to family, the work of Jewish artists (painters, photographers) and personal experience, Jamie Wendt has written a riveting and moving collection of poems. In persona, personal, and ekphrastic poems, Wendt creates a rich portrait of the Jewish people, both in their homelands of eastern Europe and in their displacement to the West, most specifically the city of Chicago. These beautifully crafted poems move from lyric to narrative to Whitmanesque revelations of the people—their work, their rearing of children, the rituals of their faith that hold their communities together, the horrors of war and persecution, their resilience. Wendt manages to deftly reveal the details of these lives and deaths, while at the same time opening our minds and hearts to the big picture. A rare and beautiful book, and just maybe, in these perilous times of rising antisemitism and autocracy, a necessary one.
—Jim Peterson, author of The Horse Who Bears Me Away & Towheaded Stone Thrower
As a translator from Yiddish, I was thrilled to discover Jamie Wendt’s Laughing in Yiddish, a poignant collection of poems that beautifully bridges the vast expanse from the bustling streets of U.S. cities to the historic shtetls of the Pale of Settlement. Delving deep into Jewish history, weaving tales of joy and sorrow, Laughing in Yiddish juxtaposes lifestyles that are worlds apart, one where “In English, we learned words like tenement, factory, merchandise” with one where “Jews were shot point-blank at Babi Yar.” Wendt’s evocative verses make us reflect on the resilience and spirit of the Jewish people, particularly women, bearing witness to suffering and atrocities, yet retaining a constant spark of hope “in order to sing, to rise, to hallelujah.”
—Rose Waldman, Yiddish translator of Pioneers: The First Breach by S. An-Sky
About the Author
Jamie Wendt is the author of the poetry collection Fruit of the Earth (Main Street Rag, 2018), which won the 2019 National Federation of Press Women Book Award in Poetry. Laughing in Yiddish is her second book and was a finalist for the 2022 Philip Levine Prize in Poetry. Her poems and essays have been published in various literary journals and anthologies, including Feminine Rising, Lilith, Jet Fuel Review, the Forward, Green Mountains Review, Catamaran, Minerva Rising, Gyroscope Review, Minyan Magazine, and others. She contributes book reviews to the Jewish Book Council. Wendt was a third prize winner of the 2024 Reuben Rose Poetry Competition, she has received a Pushcart Prize Honorable Mention, and was nominated for Best Spiritual Literature. She was selected as an International Merit Award winner in the Atlanta Review 2022 International Poetry Competition. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska Omaha. She lives in Chicago with her husband and two children. Find her online at https://jamie-wendt.com/ or on Instagram @jamiewendtpoet.
Publication Date: February 28, 2025
Paperback, 94 pages
ISBN: 978-1-956782-96-7
“To tell a long story short, Papa says, / and then proceeds to tell bits of a long story.” Poet Jamie Wendt does the same in her new collection Laughing in Yiddish, and through telling bits of her family’s journey from Russia to contemporary Chicago she enters upon the very long and often horrific story of Jewish history and tradition. Overcoming her relatives’ reticence to look backward (“No one talked about the past back then”) she teases out touching details of Jewish community life in America and beyond, sketching vivid portraits of the individuals who informed her life and identity. There is the sort of laughing one does to keep from crying, and while these poems are not themselves in Yiddish, the role of dark humor in the face of catastrophe that pervades that language and culture is evident throughout. And it seldom has felt so timely, and so necessary.
Praise for Jamie Wendt & Laughing in Yiddish
In these deeply felt and painstakingly crafted poems, a woman grapples with centuries of Jewish persecution and diaspora. A visitation of “[w]inged angels – my ancestors” opens the book, and it closes with a vow to keep telling the stories of “a wound bigger than the humid sky.” The poems span geography and time, from Wendt’s ancestral roots in Russia to her family’s more recent life in Chicago, passing through pogroms and flight to “poverty and perseverance.” Here you will find an insistence on history and an unflinching gaze on its horrors, held in equipoise with the blessings of family, faith, and tradition. Along the way you’ll hear stories told by Wendt’s grandfather and others, featuring everyday women and men struggling to survive, and more than a few golems. Throughout these poems, Yiddish words and phrases leaven writing that engages with formal tradition—pantoum, ghazal, triolet, ekphrasis—in order to “read and wrestle the past.” Laughing in Yiddish is a comfort and a tikkun olam, offering a way to endure and remember, remember and endure.
—Rebecca Foust, author of ONLY and Marin County Poet Laureate emerita
Jerusalem, Ancient Egypt, Lithuania, Chicago. Wendt’s striking poems conflate Jewish history, ancestral anecdotes, and contemporary experience. Laden with surprising and pleasurable leaps, Laughing in Yiddish movingly reminds us that the past haunts and enriches the present while the present preserves and sweetens the past. This is a luminous book!
—Yehoshua November, author of The Concealment of Endless Light
Drawing on the history of the Jewish people, stories passed down from family to family, the work of Jewish artists (painters, photographers) and personal experience, Jamie Wendt has written a riveting and moving collection of poems. In persona, personal, and ekphrastic poems, Wendt creates a rich portrait of the Jewish people, both in their homelands of eastern Europe and in their displacement to the West, most specifically the city of Chicago. These beautifully crafted poems move from lyric to narrative to Whitmanesque revelations of the people—their work, their rearing of children, the rituals of their faith that hold their communities together, the horrors of war and persecution, their resilience. Wendt manages to deftly reveal the details of these lives and deaths, while at the same time opening our minds and hearts to the big picture. A rare and beautiful book, and just maybe, in these perilous times of rising antisemitism and autocracy, a necessary one.
—Jim Peterson, author of The Horse Who Bears Me Away & Towheaded Stone Thrower
As a translator from Yiddish, I was thrilled to discover Jamie Wendt’s Laughing in Yiddish, a poignant collection of poems that beautifully bridges the vast expanse from the bustling streets of U.S. cities to the historic shtetls of the Pale of Settlement. Delving deep into Jewish history, weaving tales of joy and sorrow, Laughing in Yiddish juxtaposes lifestyles that are worlds apart, one where “In English, we learned words like tenement, factory, merchandise” with one where “Jews were shot point-blank at Babi Yar.” Wendt’s evocative verses make us reflect on the resilience and spirit of the Jewish people, particularly women, bearing witness to suffering and atrocities, yet retaining a constant spark of hope “in order to sing, to rise, to hallelujah.”
—Rose Waldman, Yiddish translator of Pioneers: The First Breach by S. An-Sky
About the Author
Jamie Wendt is the author of the poetry collection Fruit of the Earth (Main Street Rag, 2018), which won the 2019 National Federation of Press Women Book Award in Poetry. Laughing in Yiddish is her second book and was a finalist for the 2022 Philip Levine Prize in Poetry. Her poems and essays have been published in various literary journals and anthologies, including Feminine Rising, Lilith, Jet Fuel Review, the Forward, Green Mountains Review, Catamaran, Minerva Rising, Gyroscope Review, Minyan Magazine, and others. She contributes book reviews to the Jewish Book Council. Wendt was a third prize winner of the 2024 Reuben Rose Poetry Competition, she has received a Pushcart Prize Honorable Mention, and was nominated for Best Spiritual Literature. She was selected as an International Merit Award winner in the Atlanta Review 2022 International Poetry Competition. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska Omaha. She lives in Chicago with her husband and two children. Find her online at https://jamie-wendt.com/ or on Instagram @jamiewendtpoet.