Oregon Jewish Voices 2021

Started in 1999, and organized by writer Willa Schneberg, this annual event features readings by prominent Oregon Jewish poets and writers. The writers in the 2021 program, who span a range of genres including fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and essays, will share selections from their work in a virtual reading on Zoom. 

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Speakers for 2021

Poet Joan Dobbie was born in Trogen, Switzerland of refugee parents, and grew up in a small town in Northern New York. She teaches Hatha Yoga at University of Oregon, from which she holds an MFA in Creative Writing. Despite her many small press publications, several chapbooks, and two full length poetry collections, her greatest claim to fame is that she was actually THERE at Woodstock. Joan currently resides in Eugene and co-hosts the River Road Reading Series, a monthly reading series.

Novelist Ellen Michaelson is a physician in Portland, and an MFA graduate from Pacific University. Currently an assistant professor of Medicine at OHSU and vice president of the board of the NW Narrative Medicine Collaborative, she was an NEH Fellow in Medical Humanities and attended Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Her work has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Portland Monthly, Women in Solitude (SUNY Press), and Literature in Medicine. The Care of Strangers, winner of the 2019 Miami Book Fair de Groot Prize, is her first book.

Essayist Daniel Pollack-Pelzner grew up in Portland and taught literature at the American School of Paris, Kehillah Jewish High School in California, Harvard University, and, most recently, Linfield College. He is currently a visiting scholar at Portland State University, the scholar-in-residence at the Portland Shakespeare Project, and the Shakespeare scholar for the Oregon Psychiatric Physicians Association. His essays on theater and contemporary culture have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. Daniel last appeared on stage as Mordechai in Congregation Havurah Shalom’s adults-only Purim spiel.

Poet Willa Schneberg is a poet, essayist, visual artist, curator, and psychotherapist in private practice. She has authored five poetry collections including: In The Margins of The World, recipient of the Oregon Book Award, and her latest volume, Rending the Garment. Willa co-founded with OJMCHE’s director, Judy Margles, Oregon “Jewish Voices,” now in its 22nd year, and guided a Literary Arts Readers’ seminar entitled “Literature of Modern and Contemporary Jewish American Women Writers.” A new manuscript, “The Naked Room,” was a runner-up for the Sally Albiso Award.

Singer/Songwriter Amy Shapiro was born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1952, grew up in a Reform Jewish family, and currently lives in Portland with her husband Jeffrey Olenick. She is a Jewish music performer, songwriter, teacher, lay Cantor, and community activist. In June of 2021, Amy achieved her thirty-year goal of getting the Oregon State Legislature to officially change offensive lyrics in Oregon’s State Song, “Oregon, My Oregon,” to her updated lyrics. The bill acknowledges Oregon’s racist history and was passed by large majorities in both the House and the Senate.