Conversing with Poet Yehoshua November
[This was originally published in 2013 in OU Magazine.]
Professor Yehoshua November’s debut poetry collection God’s Optimism won the 2010 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award, was nominated for an LA Times Book Prize and was a finalist for the Tampa Review Prize for Poetry and Autumn House Poetry Prize. November, who holds a master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh, was the recipient of the Prairie Schooner Bernice Slote Award, and had his poem “After Our Wedding” read on NPR. November’s poems have appeared in some of the most prestigious literary magazines including Prairie Schooner, the Sun, Margie, Provincetown Arts and in numerous Jewish publications. November, who was raised in a traditional Jewish home, became Chassidic in college and spent two years studying at the Lubavitch Rabbinical College of America in Morristown, New Jersey. Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, November teaches writing at Rutgers University and Touro College.
SH: How did you come to be interested in poetry?
