Critical Praise

Here we are fed by the lovely, quirky music of Norma Farber’s hosannas. These poems are votaries, little fires Farber lights one by one as we turn the pages. Playful, somber, weighted with the foreshadow of sorrow, these flames burn steady, sure—giving off, in their aggregate, a fine and indelible heat.

—Paulann Petersen, author of The Wild Awake

This series of poems opens to us a new way of reading Jesus’ birth, at once simple and elegant. To accomplish this, the poet has brought together elements of what we think of as Christian culture, a loosely connected body of lore centered around the baby Jesus: speaking animals, folk tales, parable, myth, legend, and so on, all bound in a lucid, beautifully turned prosody. The breadth of tone in these terse lyrics is striking, a reflection of the complexity of the miraculous event.

—Leonard Nathan, author of The Potato Eaters

Biography

Poet, concert singer, actress, novelist, translator; wife, mother, grandmother, widow, NORMA FARBER (1909-1984) was the author of more than thirty books. Her poems appeared in periodicals including The Christian Science Monitor, The Nation, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. In the manger story, Norma Farber found the purity and potential which the birth of any child may signify, as well as the enchantment that compelled creatures of field and forest. Illustrated by artists including Petra Mathers, and set to music by composers including Daniel Pinkham, the nativity poems of Norma Farber continue to bring alive this extraordinary moment of harmony and promise.

Other titles by NORMA FARBER are available at Alibris. Books by NORMA FARBER are represented by the Stephanidis Agency, Inc

Birth in the Family
by Norma Farber
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$15.00

Paperback: 64 pages; 5.25 in x 7.5 in
Published:El León, 1st ed. (March 2003)
ISBN: 0887395384
Poetry

Related Links: Other titles by NORMA FARBER are available at Alibris.