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reviews and excerpts from
Afterwords.
 

Reading and Writing and the Occasional Recipe

From February, 2002 to March, 2009 I wrote a column called City Type for The Boston Globe. The columns were conversations with Boston-area writers and poets and are archived here.

2002  •  2003  •  2004  •  2005  •  2006  •  2007
  2008  •  2009
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 poem of the month

mending

what is broken can
               (never)
be repaired
the pieces can
               (not)
be put back
shift them beneath your fingers
without looking
feel the jagged tender shards seek
their place
turn them
let them catch the light
hear them singing in your hands
take them all
each hair each blink
each ineffable leaf
find the most sacred fit
for the rough shining edges
it will be
               (almost)
like new

Read more poems here.
 
readings

Sunday, April 7, 1:30pm Boston Poetry Festival, Boston Public Library

Tuesday, April 16, 6pm Boston Public Library, Copley Square, in the Commonwealth Salon

Wednesday, May 8, 7pm Porter Square Books, Cambridge
good news

Coming in September, my third book, "Brightness Falls."

Garrison Picks Ellen:
My poem, "Letter Home" is in Garrison Keillor's new anthology, "Good Poems, American Places." Hear him read it.

One of my poems was nominated for a Pushcart Prize!

Here are two interviews I did, one on television and one for National Poetry Month (scroll down to April 30 to see it).

"Why I Write"--brief essays by poets, including me!

quote of the month

“Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

CenterPiece is a one-person play I have written and that I perform. It looks at the patchwork of life experiences we all share, from assimilating our family legends to learning about love and loss to finding our own voices and moving into the center of our lives. Click here for more info.
 
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©2004 Ellen Steinbaum

My photo on the home page is by Peter Urban.
The cover of my book, Afterwords, was designed by Kate Misail.
The painting on the cover of Afterwords is by Eric Sealine.
The painting on the cover of Container Gardening is by Faith Hochberg.

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