Hauntingly original, this spare but rich collection weaves an emotionally complex tapestry that includes bits of history and Biblical tradition as well as fragments of our calamitous present. Moving by suggestion and association rather than linear narrative or argument, Nava EtShalom crafts subtle coherence from beautifully singing lines and constantly surprising language.

Martha Collins

Nava EtShalom’s Fortunately registers the note of regret its title bears by ingenious means. You can take time thinking about it, but EtShalom, a witty, meticulous and astute poet, has delivered her verdict on our times and their horrors of displacement, devastation and guiltless equanimity in the face of violence. EtShalom’s evidence goes back to her begats and ours, her yearnings and ours. She almost redeems us by noting an unstoppable capacity for love within us and by registering that innocence does exist. Otherwise, the countless unforgivables that we lay at the feet of misfortune are luminously, even beautifully rendered. Fortunately is a powerful collection by a gifted and deeply engaging poet.

Khaled Mattawa

"I never made anything / but a concession to thunder,” writes Nava EtShalom. Her poem-making in The Knives We Need is urgent, spare, passionate, mysterious. Hers is a voice of prophecy reverberating with the thunder of old patriarchal sins, the Binding of Isaac, stolen land, suicide, mourning, a saving disobedience. These wise, beautiful poems count gaps and gashes, and from the fracture, draw new wholeness, a healing art.

 

Rosanna Warren