Join poet, journalist, and long-time CBE member Jo-Ann Mort as she shares her debut poetry collection, A Precise Chaos. In conversation with author Brian Morton, Jo-Ann will share how a life-long commitment to social evolution — and, occasionally, revolution — animates the poems in A Precise Chaos. Moving from Mostar to Oaxaca, Paris to Taormina, Mort’s peripatetic poems reflect her experiences as a trade union activist, a political organizer, and a peace activist in the Middle East. Refusing to evade the hard questions called for by a life honestly examined, she asks: “We, who are so righteous./Where does it lead us?”
Reception and book signing co-hosted with Community Bookstore to follow.
Jo-Ann Mort returned to poetry writing when she turned 60. Her poetry has appeared recently in Plume, UpStreet, Stand (UK), the Atlanta Review, and elsewhere. A 1978 graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, she also did graduate work in poetry and philosophy at NYU. Her previous lives inform her poetry, as do her global wanderings—as a trade union activist, a political organizer, and a long time advocate for, and writer about, peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Jo-Ann has written analysis and reported for more than 40 years from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), including the West Bank and Gaza. Her journalism is widely published in the US and UK. A member of CBE since 2006, Jo-Ann has served as a member of the board and engaged in Israel programming in her years at CBE. Jo-Ann is a member of the national steering committee of Writers for Democratic Action.
Brian Morton is the author of novels including Starting Out in the Evening and Florence Gordon, the memoir Tasha, and the forthcoming literary guidebook Writing as a Way of Life. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.