| Hosted by | The Yale Bookstore |
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| Details | Laura Altshul’s The Shearing is a brave book. The eloquent poems in the book face Loss of all sorts head on, but through the good offices of Love, Courage, and the grace of Nature the message of the book is an uplifting one offering hope in a time of trouble. About the book: Pegi Deitz Shea has written, “The Shearing, Laura Altshul’s new book, shows once again her poetic craft. Her final lines make you gasp and then immediately re-read the poems with fresh insight. In one of the book’s first poems, ‘Company Car 1949,’ exotic trips in her dad’s Oldsmobile 88 Rocket send a young girl into new orbits, undone by having to return to an apartment with ‘the landlord’s / heavy tread above us.’ The line hints that doom may always be looming over us, the way Covid has. But in poems such as ‘Banging on the Balcony,’ ‘Pumping,’ and ‘The Shearing,’ Altshul’s generosity of spirit and courage, incorporated in poems full of exquisite detail, remind us to keep giving: Noise is praise; breast milk is life; hair lost to chemo is shelter. Turn to The Shearing for shelter when Doom comes crashing down.” D. Walsh Gilbert adds this: “Woven as lovingly as a baby blanket, these poems trace the growing warmth from childhood into the cloak of adulthood with all its understandings and confusions. Personal history moves into admiration for other people’s lives and life trials until coming to rest at the peace only nature can give. Depicting the grip of malicious intrusions, both worldwide disorder and one invading a woman’s most intimate spaces, Laura Altshul’s The Shearing shows just how vulnerable we can all become. Ready yourself and read it with the ones you love.” About the author: Laura Altshul is a Vassar College graduate with a Master’s degree in Literature from NYU. She has taught in the Great Books program and in colleges, high schools, and elementary grades. She now tutors and serves on non-profit boards focused on providing educational and arts experiences for New Haven’s children whose families don’t ordinarily have access to these opportunities. Her first collection of poetry, Searching for the Northern Lights, appeared in 2015, her second, Bodies Passing, in 2017, and her third, Looking Out, in 2019, all from Antrim House. Although she has always written essays and stories, she turned to poetry in retirement. Her poems have been published in Connecticut River Review, Encore, Forgotten Women: A Tribute in Poetry, The Perch, Serving House Journal, Unlocking the Word: An Anthology of Found Poetry, Pulse, Our Changing Environment, The Circle, and Streetlight Magazine. Her poems have won prizes from The Connecticut Poetry Society, The Hamden Arts Commission, The New York Poetry Society, The Poetry Society of Michigan, The Tennessee Poetry Society, and The Utah Poetry Society. She was the featured poet in the half hour public television series Speaking of Poetry Episode 36, and has given readings throughout Connecticut. She co-leads the New Haven Chapter of the Connecticut Poetry Society with her husband, Victor Altshul. Together they have seven children and eleven grandchildren. |
| Admission | FREE |
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| More Info | info link |