Joy Ladin is the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish institution. On Monday, Sept. 23, she will read from her poetry collection, “The Definition of Joy,” at 3 p.m. at Laurel Forum in UNC Asheville’s Karpen Hall. That same day at 7:30 p.m., she’ll give the talk “Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders,” at the Sherrill Center, in the Mission Health Mountain View Room. Both events are free and open to the public.
From a press release:
Joy Ladin, formerly Jay Ladin, is the award-winning author of six books of poetry, including The Definition of Joy (Sheep Meadow, 2012), Coming to Life (Sheep Meadow, 2011), and Transmigration (Sheep Meadow, 2009). Her memoir, Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders (University of Wisconsin Press, 2012), was a finalist for a 2012 National Jewish Book Award, and a Forward Fives winner. She is also the author of a book-length study of American poetry, Soldering the Abyss: Emily Dickinson and Modern American Poetry (VDM Verlag, 2010).
Ladin’s work has appeared in many periodicals, including American Poetry Review, Southern Review, and Prairie Schooner and she has been recognized with a Fulbright Scholarship and a research fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies. Ladin is the Gottesman Professor of English at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women in New York.
Ladin’s presentations are sponsored by UNC Asheville’s Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program, the university’s Center for Jewish Studies, the Asheville Jewish Community Center, and are supported by a grant from the Amy Mandel and Katina Rodis Fund. For more information, contact the Center for Jewish Studies at 828.232.5027.
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