Maxim D. Shrayer

Nov 20, 2024 | tabletmag.com | Maxim D. Shrayer

Art and Ilene were standing on the upper deck of the Saaremaa ferry. Art had already wolfed down an open-faced sandwich made with mealy caraway bread, butter, a peppered hard-boiled egg and Baltic anchovies, and was knocking back a portly dark-green bottle with a white castle on its coat of hops. Their red Opel, a free upgrade courtesy of a toothy manager at the Tallinn airport, was sailing the short passage from the mainland in the ferry’s bowels.

Nov 12, 2024 | arcmag.org | Maxim D. Shrayer

In the weeks after my father died, I did a lot of fishing. It was one of the few things that afforded a modicum of comfort or distraction. I spent entire days unable to focus on larger tasks, mainly tinkering with my own verses and with English translations of my father’s poetry, until the evening, when I would drive to a kettle pond near our cottage on the elbow of Cape Cod, get into my boat, row out to the middle and drop my line.

Apr 16, 2024 | tabletmag.com | Maxim D. Shrayer

Over the course of February 2024, I had exchanges and conversations, formal and informal, off and on record, with about 90 Jewish poets and translators, the majority of them living in the U.S., although some in Israel. They include some of today’s best known American poets as well as poets who are mainly known to other Jewish poets and readers. Before I present my findings, I should briefly explain my working understanding of what constitutes a Jewish poet and Jewish poetry in today’s America.

Apr 2, 2024 | tabletmag.com | Maxim D. Shrayer

On Feb. 11, the poet and political activist Eileen Myles posted a photo of a lined notepad on their Facebook page. Written in a snappy block print, all caps, were the words “ISRAEL IS THE BABY CHILD AND INFANT PROTECTOR OF IMPERIALISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST — KWAME TURE STOKELEY CARMICHAEL.” The word “ISRAEL” was performatively crossed out, and the word “ZIONISM” written on top.

Jan 2, 2024 | thedailyscroll.substack.com | Maxim D. Shrayer |Park MacDougald

More than 300,000 migrants entered the United States in December, the most ever in a single month, breaking the record of 269,735 set in September.Ali Bradley and Bill Melugin report, citing estimates from Customs and Border Protection sources (official statistics will be published at the end of January), that Border Patrol encountered more than 249,000 migrants at the southern border last month and more than 52,000 through CBP’s Office of Field Operations, which processes migrants arriving...