Kinship
Kinship, a new English-language poetry collection by bilingual author and Boston College Professor Maxim D. Shrayer, weaves together some of the principal themes in modern Jewish history, exploring such topics as ancestry in Eastern Europe, the Shoah, antisemitism, the refusenik experience, exile, displacement and immigration, and Zionism and Israel.
“Kinship is a pained and inspiring meditation on writing between languages and cultures,” the publisher, Finishing Line Press, notes of the 33-poem collection, which is out this month. “Shrayer’s richly orchestrated and formally elegant verse captures with poignancy and passion what it feels like to be a Jewish poet with Soviet roots, living in America during Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine.”
Cover photograph of 'Kinship' was taken by Maxim D. Shrayer.
A double poetry launch will be held on April 30 at Burns Library Fine Print Room to celebrate the publication of Kinship as well as Chanties: An American Dream, a poetry chapbook by Professor of English Eric Weiskott. The free, public event will feature author readings, book signings, and a Passover-friendly reception.
Shrayer, a professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies who has authored and edited more than 25 books in English and Russian, said Kinship is his “quest to examine, through the lens of Jewish poetry, what is happening with the world. Its themes reflect both my personal history and my literary and academic interests.
“We’re living at a time of global wars and extreme polarization of the sociopolitical landscape, and thinking about it, cognizing it, and bearing witness to all of this via poetry felt both more organic and more constructive” than via literary prose, Shrayer added.
Poetry has taken center stage in Shrayer’s work since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he said. “Poetry tends to be a smaller form, often linked more obviously with social, political, and spiritual messaging, a form where textures and colors of the author’s identity reveal themselves more distinctly.”
Kinship opens with the title poem, an anti-war, anti-Putin text which is close to Shrayer’s personal story, and ends with “Homecoming,” a collective history of exile. Both have to do with the impossibility of return—for as long as a dictatorial regime rules Russia, according to the poet.
“There is room in our culture for more poetry that deals with the origins of some of today's biggest conflicts. Among those who can shed light on them are translingual poets and Jewish poets who are rooted in two worlds. Poets who, like myself, came from the former Soviet Empire but have made a life in America—and also in the English language. One of my hopes for this collection is that it would help people connect a lot of the dots” about the war in Ukraine, explained Shrayer, whose family has deep roots there.
While some of the poems have political and historical dimensions, Shrayer doesn't want Kinship to be considered a primarily political document. “It's also a book of lyrical poems; they are confessional and self-revealing, and that's the best hope I have for poetry. In the post-October 7 climate of hostility to Israel, people will find in Kinship poems about things Jewish and Israeli that explore Israel as a beautiful, complex place.”
“We’re living at a time of global wars and extreme polarization of the sociopolitical landscape, and thinking about it, cognizing it, and bearing witness to all of this via poetry felt both more organic and more constructive” than via literary prose.
Shrayer is a third-generation author and poet’s son. Kinship is his sixth volume of poetry and second written in English, following Of Politics and Pandemics published in 2020.
“Over the past three years I’ve been writing more poetry in English, especially more Jewish poetry in English. In part this comes from the realization that, when Russia invaded Ukraine, it was the end of my previous relationship with Russia,” he said.
In addition to the Russian- to English-language transition, Shrayer’s poetry has evolved in terms of structural changes: “A shift from the satirical to the lyrical, and from the persona of a Russian immigrant to that of a Jewish exile, and an increased attention to international politics and war politics. On the level of versification and prosody, I can specify a growing dependency on more expansive poetic forms.
“The poems in Kinship fluctuate between classical and nonclassical versification. My Russian roots are more closely aligned with classical versification because Russian poetry is more traditional than modern Anglo-American poetry,” Shrayer explained. “In English, I incorporate classical forms, but also employ stanzaic forms and meters that are still foreigners or expatriates in English. In my shorter, non-classical poems you see more of the American, or the almost-American poet in me, of perhaps an ex-Soviet who is playing at being an American poet.”
For more about Maxim D. Shrayer and his work, see www.shrayer.com.