Wayne State University Press

Positioning poet Ruth Whitman as a necessary and radical voice within the American poetry canon. Ruth Whitman's poetry and other creative work have left an undeniable mark on twentieth-century literature. Known as a poet and a translator of Yiddish poetry, Whitman was intensely interested in gender and women's stories. For the first time in a single volume, readers can engage with her eight published books of poetry as well as the never-before-seen Atlantic Light and her prose practicum, Becoming a Poet. The first half of the collection contains persona poems of fascinating women—from Tamsen Donner of the ill-fated Donner Party, to Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut, to modern dancer Isadora Duncan. The second half takes up many themes, including Jewishness, domestic life, and motherhood. Whitman's distinctive methods and influences, alongside her unique poetic technique, make clear her commitment to expanding the boundaries of poetic form as well as exploring gender, family, the self, creativity, mortality, and memory in poetry. This text firmly positions Whitman as a necessary and radical voice within the American poetry canon.

The first translation of this radical novel set at the heart of 1930s Israel/Palestine. In late 1920s Palestine, Zalmen has just arrived at Jaffa port on his way to a small northern kibbutz. Young and idealistic, he hopes to put down roots and help create a model society. But he soon realizes that the power dynamics between British colonists and Jewish and Arab workers have reached a breaking point. Zalmen, caught in the web of ideological conflicts, violence, and revolution, must decide with whom his loyalties lie. With frank depictions of political and ethnic tension, sexual freedom on the kibbutz, Labor Zionist politics, and rising Communist influences, Boom and Chains offers a rare glimpse of the Jewish left before the State of Israel and vividly illustrates the physical and mental toll of making a life in Mandatory Palestine. Author Hanan Ayalti's own journey resembles that of Zalmen and reflects his disillusionment with early Labor Zionism. The novel raises important questions around the development of discourse about Israel/Palestine, socialist Zionism and anti-Zionism, sexuality and sexualization, and Jewish left history over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Drawing on sound studies and performance theory, scholar Shikha Jhingan explores the discursive nature of the female playback voice in Bombay film songs. Mapping the production, circulation, and reception of the voices of singing stars—notably Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle—Jhingan situates the singing voice as a cinematic object with limitless possibilities of distribution and dispersal. She employs the perspectives of a diverse range of listeners across a vast media landscape to illustrate how the affective charge of the female playback voice, combined with developments in audio technology, has led to a gradual expansion of opportunities for women in film, popular music, and media and audio production. With nuanced exploration of the way the human voice becomes intertwined with devices such as the microphone, radio, cassettes, and digital technologies, Jhingan argues for the sonic excess of the female voice beyond the narrative and visual. The Female Playback in Bombay Cinema is an authoritative addition to the field of sound studies with implications for gender studies, performance studies, and cinema studies.

A personal testament in poetry to survival, resilience, and the complex legacy of the Holocaust.In this harrowing firsthand account of the Holocaust, survivor Tobias Schiff displays the depths of human suffering, the capacity for hope and renewal, and the impact of starvation on the human mind. Schiff was a teenager when Nazis deported his family to Auschwitz from Antwerp, Belgium, and he spent the next thirty-three agonizing months in numerous concentration camps. This deeply personal memoir-in-verse explores personal faith, identity, memory, and trauma across a lifetime interrupted by suffering. Through his eyes, readers witness the atrocities and struggles that defined his daily existence, feel his tenacity while beaten and starved, and learn what enabled him and others to cling to life while surrounded by death. Schiff's verse challenges dehumanizing narratives and provides an intimate view of the realities of life in Nazi death camps and the long-lasting impact of trauma. As racism, antisemitism, and Islamophobia resurge and continue to pollute the modern era, his pain—imparted through concise, rhythmic verse—serves as a reminder of our collective humanity and a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit.