Santa Monica, California
Order books: “I seek solace in crashing waves salt breeze / inhale THE VAST UNKNOWING” buybooksontheweb.com/product.aspx?ISBN=0-7414-8138-3
Eros becomes bodied in GAME WITH VARIATIONS in its sharp piercing poems barnesandnoble.com/w/game-with-variations-nancy-shiffrin/1024165567
Read poems from FLIGHT, Nancy's forthcoming collection “I … wonder / what gene must mutate / for Evil to vanish / from this sacred earth.” wordpoetrybooks.com/shiffrin-flight.html
Read an interview with Nancy: thepoetmagazine.org/interview-with-nancy-shiffrin
“There are no writer's blocks, only secrets we're afraid of telling” —Anais Nin
About Nancy Shiffrin’s Poetry:
about THE VAST UNKNOWING
“THE VAST UNKNOWING collects a wide spectrum of poetry from Nancy Shiffrin.... One of her main questions is Who are we? What made us that person? She explores a number of sources of our identity....The poem, 'My Shoah' brings together many of her disparate threads—family, religion, evil, details from her personal history—and makes them work together. When she is at her best, as in this poem, Shiffrin produces deep powerful poetry.”
—G. Murray Thomas, poetix.net
“Buckle up. Hold tight! THE VAST UNKNOWING is like riding the roller coaster. It will plunge you into despair, exhilarate you, shake you to the depths of your being, terrify you, elate, disturb. And leave you weak-kneed, dizzy and delighted that you saw it through to a safe landing. A ride not to be missed.... words as weapons, words as balm, sometimes words that puzzle, words that arouse... In her poem, 'At the Writers' Retreat', Shiffrin quotes Anais Nin, 'There are no writer's blocks, only secrets we are afraid of telling.' Nancy Shiffrin isn't afraid. And no one will remain indifferent to the virtuoso power with which she reveals her secrets.”
—Ricky Rapoport Friesem, Poetica Magazine
“Nancy Shiffrin's new book of poetry, THE VAST UNKNOWING, rekindled my fascination with Anais Nin.... Both writers explore personal relationships, the chaos of inner struggle, the beauty of nature, and sense awareness. The section on Fairy Tales calls to mind Nin's fascination with dreams and her continuous probing of the creative spirit.... There is a frankness in Shiffrin's work that matches Nin's journals, and a similar autobiographical tone.”
—Karen Kane, Paris by Design
“‘September, 2001’ (published here as ‘Lamentation’) touches us by conveying vividly not only the horror of the victims' ordeal but also the humanity of the perpetrators.”
—Liz Zelvin, AOL Social Work Forum Newsletter
“Nancy Shiffrin’s poems convey a social consciousness that is often lacking in literature today. I love the way they speak for those who are unable to speak for themselves.”
—Dianna Henning, MFA, Lassen County Arts Council
about GAME WITH VARIATIONS
“There is a Mexican saying, 'De medico, poeta y loco/ todos tenemos un poco’ (We all have a bit of doctor, poet and madman—or woman—in us)'. Nancy Shiffrin takes all three roles... She stirs us with powerful sounds and images... She is a master of detail.”
—Barbara Lombardo, On The Bus
“Many of these poems are marvelous! There is the clear sense of the completely liberated woman…The poet cares that we like her poems, but she won’t stop writing if we don’t.”
—Leo Connellan, Small Press Review
“Nancy Shiffrin’s poetry is to cherish for richness of emotions and vividness of metaphor. She confronts the body frankly, patriarchal repression with rightful anger…”
—Natania Rosenfeld, Shofar
“Nancy Shiffrin's poems are gut-land responses to a personal life of risks, frustrations, and celebrations. Her writing is lean, sensitive, erotic. She celebrates the female body with a rare vigor.”
—Robert Peters
about FLIGHT
In Flight, veteran poet Nancy Shiffrin regards the juxtaposition of beauty both vast and in sharply etched detail with the sometimes unbearable weight of history—personal, Jewish, and human—in a deft mix of observation and engagement, wry commentary and a sense of wonder. These are songs of experience that spoke deeply to me, Shiffrin's contemporary.
—Elizabeth Zelvin, poet, author of I Am the Daughter and Gifts & Secrets
Nancy Shiffrin's questioning eye sees the gritty details of what normally goes unseen. In this way, Flight becomes a collection of secrets, even when it deals with well-known images and events: the Holocaust, the homeless, the combat of nature—from insects in a field (or a bathtub) to birds in wind to humans in every circumstance. Sometimes detached, most often keenly personal, these elegantly crafted poems reflect a world of constant movement, where each sudden or subtle shift signifies life.
—Bill Harding publisher of The San Diego Poetry Annual
Nancy Shiffrin’s Flight allows the reader to enter into poetic renewal as she allows readers to see, hear and taste contemporary Los Angeles in all of its delicious complexity. These are lovely poems about the sacred earth, love, dreams and delightful glimpses of virginity.
—Stanford Searl, professor of interdisciplinary studies The Union Institute and University
PUBLICATIONS:
When the Virus Came Calling anthology; Thelma Reyna, editor
goldenfoothillspress.com/Our-Books-and-Authors.html
Flight: Poems after 70
and
Out of the Garden, the novel I began in Anais Nin’s class, is now available at the link below, coupled with an essay about my experience, “Invoking Anais Nin.”
lulu.com/search?adult_audience_rating=00&q=Nancy+Shiffrin
The Vast Unknowing: poems of the creative life (Infinity Publishing, 2013)
barnesandnoble.com/w/vast-unknowing-nancy-shiffrin/1024165568
Game with Variations: erotic poems, (Unibook, 2010)
wordpoetrybooks.com/shiffrin.html
Personally signed copies of either book are available directly from the author for $50.00 including tax and shipping.
Books and services are available directly from Nancy: nshiffrin@earthlink.net
DONATE BELOW TO RECEIVE SERVICES OR SIGNED COPIES OF BOOKS
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CELEBRATE
for Anais Nin
in the hills I learn the design
the lizard outside my door
has different markings each year the same tissue
flame terrorizes brush strips ravines
cleanses the small animal population
I mourn quail and rabbits I’ve fed
fire part of the plan
the wild cells baffling your armor
aspects of the scheme
stain them adjust the lens
see how they multiply
jewels blossoming in your marrow
these homely parasites will devour your high cheek
your graceful step child-woman air will disappear
I weep do not despair
we are one cell—you I lizard rabbit quail
bequeath me your wigs
orange and yellow bobbed and fringed
I will comfort your falling hair
—Nancy Shiffrin
first published in a slightly different form in the Los Angeles Times 1981
I WRITE
each day
on these sheets
reclaim
marrow bone sinew
surrendered
each night
on those sheets
—Nancy Shiffrin
EAGLE
claws dug into my shoulder
wings spread
where will you take me?
the eggs in the nest
in the live oak’s crook
what are they trying to say?
this is not a dream
I have never been more awake
than in this room
bright lights people talking
the lovers’ griefs transformed
here in the forest
leaves casting their shadow
I see Death lurking behind the tree
cloaked in rags chugging his beer
my astral body floating in space
the eggs crack
the chicks emerge
your grip tightens
your wings batter the wind
I know the flight has only begun
—Nancy Shiffrin
Future projects:
Out of the Garden / Invoking Anais Nin novel and essay
Allison’s War novel, screenplay, proposal for TV series
Towards Wholeness essays, reviews, cultural criticism
Prose on Poetry reviews, feature articles, criticism
My Jewish Name memoir/scholarship derived from my dissertation