Transmigration explores many kinds of journeys in, through and after death: the journey of a self from one gender to the next; the journey of the soul in and out of flesh; the journey of a marriage into and out of love; the journey of a body from amputation to wholeness. Boiling human existence down to love, wish and desperation, Joy (formerly Jay) Ladin cobbles many materials-- shreds of Cosmo Girl, metaphysics and how-to text, intimate moments and moments of despair--into a halting, sometimes faltering path from a life that is unlivable to life that is fully lived.
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"Ladin draws the reader into a world of harsh truths, uncanny beauty, inspired erudition, ironic wit, and cadenced music.... imagination rules, wedding poetic forms to unflinching meditations on human suffering, terror, love, and unbearable loss. Despite the ubiquity of evil and death in her poems, there is, in Yeats's words, 'a gaiety transfiguring all that dread.'" (Herbert Leibowitz )
About the Author
JOY LADIN holds the David and Ruth Gottesman Chair in English at Stern College of Yeshiva University. Her books include Alternatives to History and The Book of Anna (both available from Sheep Meadow Press). She has been the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, and a nomination for Pushcart Prize in Poetry.
Joy (formerly Jay) Ladin is the author of a memoir, Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders (U. of Wisconsin Press), and six books of poetry, The Definition of Joy, Forward Fives award winner Coming to Life, Transmigration (a 2009 Lambda Literary Award finalist), The Book of Anna, and Alternatives to History, all from Sheep Meadow Press, and Psalms, a collection of original psalms from Wipf & Stock. Her poems and essays have been widely published. She holds the David and Ruth Gottesman Chair in English at Stern College of Yeshiva University, where, in 2007, she became the first openly transgender employee of an Orthodox Jewish institution. She has given many talks on writing, literature, Judaism, and gender identity. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Keshet.