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Ordering Coffee in Tel Aviv

October 2018 | Finishing Line Press

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. 

"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."

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

Click here for an exclusive interview with the Jewish Women's Archive and two poems: "Poet, Paratrooper and Prisoner of War" and "Women in the Dead Sea."

collections & anthologies

Catapult Alumni Community — "Thanking Our Stars"

Strange Fire: Jewish Voices from the Pandemic
— "Thanking Our Stars," "In God's Image," "I just wanted to pin love in my ears," "Meditation on How" and "Second Diagnosis" 


The Voices of #MeToo — "The Rules of the Road Aren't Fair" and "The Snake, Disguised"
 
Voices Israel — "Mt. Meron"

Z Publishing's Best Emerging Poets — "I Cut Off My Hair" 


literary journals

"I compulsively look up men who hurt me on Instagram" and "Broken Branch" — Wax Nine
 
"Earth Mother in the Clearing" — Glass: A Journal of Poetry

"outside me, around me" and "HE LETS YOU GET DRESSED & THEN GIVES YOU A XANAX  —  Hypertrophic Press, Winter 2018 Issue. 
Print (pg. 12 & 46)
| Online


"Your Skin is Tough & Yours" — Ghost City Review 

"The Nazi Flag in His Parents' Attic" — Yes, Poetry
 
"The Pomegranate" — Hooligan Magazine (p. 55)
 
"Her Hysterectomy" and "Ordering Coffee in Tel Aviv" — Longleaf Review
 
"The Rules of the Road Aren't Fair" and "The Snake, Disguised" — Yes, Poetry
 
"Women in the Dead Sea" — Kalliope
 
"Gold-Dipped Roses are Too Ornamental" — Kalliope
 
"weak bones" and "11101" — Kalliope
 
"whatever proof it was," "animal heart: an abcedarius," and "19-year-old recipe" — Gravel
 
"the shape of you" and "11101" — Potluck Magazine
 
"a three-part eulogy for a summer afternoon" — Kalliope

reviews

"Her Hysterectomy," reviewed by Hannah Cohen for wildness

 
The Voices of #MeToo ebook from Yes, Poetry reviewed by Daniel Casey for Misanthroper

awards

2018

"Her Hysterectomy" — Best of the Net nomination

2017

"Cherry Springs State Park" — Academy of American Poets Steinberg Prize

2016

"Gold-Dipped Roses are Too Ornamental" — James "Jake" Cranage Award in Creative Writing  

 

"Gold-Dipped Roses are Too Ornamental" — Katey Lehman Award For Poetry

2015

"weak bones" — Mathew Mihelcic Poetry Award

"the tourist's umbrella at nightfall" — Katey Lehman Award For Poetry

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