Yetzirah’s Annual Summer Conference | Asheville

Yetzirah’s annual summer conference will be held in the mountains of Asheville, NC, in partnership with UNC—Asheville’s Center for Jewish Studies (first conference to be held June 20-25, 2023). It will be a mix of generative workshops focused around Jewish questions and themes, discussion panels, craft talks, readings with faculty and fellows, many shared meals and celebrations.

Regardless of your religious practice or lack thereof, of whether you think of yourself or your writing as “Jewish enough,” applications are open to anyone who self-identifies as a Jewish poet and feels that such a gathering would be meaningful to them and to their poetry.

You can see a provisional schedule here.

Generative Workshops

Yetzirah are delighted to share that generative workshops will be led by Rodger Kamenetz, Ilya Kaminsky, and Alicia Ostriker.

It is their hope that the conference will function as an egalitarian community, supporting writers at all levels of their careers. To this end:

• A limited number of fellowships will be offered for emerging poets, whom will be paired with a Yetzirah mentor
• Full-tuition fellowships will be open to established poets
• There will be opportunities for Jewish poets to apply as paid participants
• Evening readings will be open to the community, offering an opportunity for Western North Carolina residents to hear work from some of the prominent Jewish poets of our time

Guidelines for all applications will be posted on Yetzirah’s website by December 1, 2022.