Scribblers on the Roof: An Evening of Poetry

Join us to hear renowned writers read from and discuss their recent work on the Ansche Chesed roof. Beverages, snacks and books are available for purchase. If it rains, come anyway. We have a perfect indoor space.

See our full Scribblers lineup and learn more about our authors.

SARAH STERN is the author of four poetry books: Dear Letters in the Red Box (Kelsay Books, 2026), We Have Been Lucky in the Midst of Misfortune (Kelsay Books, 2018), But Today Is Different (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2014), and Another Word for Love (Finishing Line Press, 2011). She is a 2026 Yetzirah Yotzer Fellow, six-time winner of the Bronx Council on the arts BRIO Poetry Award, a recipient of two Pushcart Prize nominations, and several Poets & Writers Readings & Workshops Grants. Stern is an educator at Poets House in New York City. She has taught poetry workshops at Poets House, WritingWorkshops.com, Off Campus Writers’ Workshop (OCWW), the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, the New York Public LIbrary, CSAIR Adult Learning Institute, Hostos Community College, the Bronx Zoo, Edgar Allen Poe Visitor Center, and privately. Stern is the founder of SDGS Solutions, a communications and marketing consultancy. She has worked at universities, cultural centers, and think tanks. She graduated from Barnard College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Known for her intelligence and passionate appraisal of women’s place in literature, ALICIA OSTRIKER’S poetry and criticism investigates themes of family, social justice, Jewish identity, and personal growth. Ostriker’s books of criticism include For the Love of God: The Bible as an Open Book (2009), Dancing at the Devil’s Party: Essays on Poetry, Politics, and the Erotic (2000), and Stealing the Language: The Emergence of Women’s Poetry in America (1983). Of her place in American letters, the writer Joyce Carol Oates noted: “Alicia Ostriker has become one of those brilliantly provocative and imaginatively gifted contemporaries whose iconoclastic expression, whether in prose or poetry, is essential to our understanding of our American selves.” Ostriker will be reading selections from two books: The Book of Life: Selected Jewish Poems 1979-2011 and The Holy and Broken Bliss: Poems in Plague Time (2024).

OWEN LEWIS is a poet and moderator of this evening of poetry. Lewis is the author of four volumes of poetry, most recently, A Prayer of Six Wings, following the author’s experience in New York and Tel Aviv following the October 7th massacre in the Negev. He has received the Rumi Prize for Poetry, The Guernsey International Prize, the E.E. Cummings Award, and the International Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine. He is a Professor of Psychiatry in Medical Humanities and Ethics at Columbia University.