Caitlin Wolper

Ordering Coffee in Tel Aviv is a coming-of-age narrative that takes place in both Israel and in the US. Most concerning to Wolper is identity and identification: She feels drawn to the story of fallen Jewish paratrooper and poet Hannah Senesh, but can't use even her own Hebrew name for fear she might not recognize it. Rife with exploration of cyclical family issues and the harrowing experience of female adolescence, Wolper's first chapbook takes minute, quotidian occurrences and extrapolates grander themes in succinct poems. 

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"A young woman’s coming-of-age narrative—on Manhattan streets and during a trip to Israel—vivifies this chapbook. ... Journeying through Israel, the narrator examines memorial sites and the 'shaping' of history, where her own 'second self' emerges. Early lessons—'They taught us that babies, before birth, /are cradled in God’s arms'—inform Wolper’s searching, twenty-first century, feminist vision. Her engagement with 'the leash of Israel’s legacy' contributes to contemporary conversations about social justice, nation, and the realities of women’s lives."

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—Robin Becker, poetry editor at the The Women’s Review of Books