Even When We Sleep 

Marilyn Kallet’s new collection of poetry, Even When We Sleep opens with sassy love poetry, then faces the pandemic with a clear eye and a lyrical embrace. Her second chapter takes us round trip to Paris and home again, with a loving eye. The third section includes poems that hold patches of memoir. The final section confronts anti-Semitism at home and abroad, ending with love and hope. Eluard’s influence is more present than ever, and William Carlos Williams gets in a line or two, for good luck! Published 2022 by Black Widow Press.

How Our Bodies Learned

Marilyn Kallet’s seventh book of lyric poems offers a collection of love poems and sensual blues that enfold more difficult poems of witness. Each of the three chapters takes a hard look at historical events: the terrorist attack in Paris, November 2015; gun violence in Orlando and San Bernardino; the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. But Kallet is also a poet of dreams and humor. She reassures her readers with songs of healing and resilience. The influence of poets such as Baudelaire, Eluard, and William Carlos Williams adds resonance. “What Power Has Love?” Kallet asks in section One, after witnessing the events in Paris. This power, love: to sing, survive, and to “love harder.” Black Widow Press. Published 2018.  You can order from amazon.com now.

The Love That Moves Me by Marilyn Kallet

This collection of love poems is inspired by Dante’s Inferno, as well as by Rimbaud’s relationship with Verlaine, and by Orpheus and Euridice. These days Beatrice and Dante find themselves in France, Indiana, and in East Tennessee, bickering at Nascar. Love is the unifying factor, song is the vehicle, descent is a constant, with re-emergence thankfully part of the narrative. Surrealist humor abounds as Benjamin Péret bursts some Romantic bubbles with his exclamations. This is a sensual and resonant collection offering hints of heaven in the love lyrics, touching upon a range of emotions and forms, from traditional pantoums to experimental verse. You can order from amazon.com now. Published 2013.

The Big Game, by Benjamin Péret, Translated, with an Introduction by Marilyn Kallet

This is the first English translation of Surrealist Benjamin Péret’s key book of poems, The Big Game (1921). Kallet’s introduction places Péret in the context of modern poetry, and renders his poems into lyrical, witty, idiomatic English. Published July 1, 2011.

Packing Light: New and Selected Poems by Marilyn Kallet

Packing Light is a compendium of almost 40 years of poetry-writing by Marilyn Kallet. The volume includes one new book of poems, and distillations from each of her previous four books of poems. The collection ranges from humorous to profound, from love poems and erotic poems to poetry about Jewish identity and the Holocaust. The publisher, Black Widow Press. Published January 1, 2009.

Jack the Healing Cat by Marilyn Kallet

Jack The Healing Cat is a full-color, illustrated children’s book. A little girl named Heather finds Jack abandoned in a box. She rescues him, bringing him home to her family. Later, when Heather gets sick, Jack senses the trouble and rushes to her rescue with his special “kitty powers.” Published October 1, 2007.

The Movable Nest: A Mother/Daughter Companion. eds. Marilyn Kallet and Kathryn Stripling Byer

This is a multicultural anthology of contemporary women’s writing on the subject of sending our daughters out into their own lives. Selections also include works about saying goodbye to our mothers. This is an upbeat book, about creative separation, from the perspectives of mothers and daughters. 52 authors are included, among them Rita Dove, Jamaica Kincaid, Linda Pastan and Sharon Olds. Co-editors, Marilyn Kallet and Kathryn Stripling Byer. Published September 1, 2007.

The Last Love Poems of Paul Eluard, translated and introduction by Marilyn Kallet

This is a new edition of translations of Paul Eluard’s Last Love Poems (Derniers poemes d’amour). Published July 1, 2006.

The Art of College Teaching: 28 Takes. ed. Marilyn Kallet

A collection of essays by a variety of teachers — from professors to a golf instructor — about the craft of teaching. Published September 15, 2005.

Circe, After Hours by Marilyn Kallet

Circe, After Hours, is a collection of lyric poems with wide range, covering love poems and family, blues and comedy, Jewish identity and Holocaust research. Published March 1, 2005.

One for Each Night: Chanukah Tales and Recipes

The book features a short story and a recipe for every night of Chanukah. Published October 1, 2003.

Sleeping with One Eye Open: Women Writers and the Art of Survival eds. Marilyn Kallet and Judith Ortiz Cofer

This is a collection of original essays by well-known women writers in every genre, about how to get past obstacles in your writing. It is geared especially to women writers, but men seeking inspiration for the creative process will also benefit. Authors include Denise Levertov, Tillie Olsen, Amy LIng, now deceased, as well as Hilda Raz, Aleida Rodriguez, Marilyn Kallet and Judith Ortiz Cofer, among others.

The book deals with topics as varied as coping with illness, fighting sexism in the workplace, finding a room or at least a small space of one’s own. Published January 1, 1999.

Worlds in our Words:Contemporary American Women Writers. eds. Marilyn Kallet and Patricia Clark

This is a multicultural anthology of contemporary American women writers, with interviews you won’t find elsewhere. Published August 11, 1996.

How to Get Heat Without Fire by Marilyn Kallet

This book of love poems is daring, bluesy, sometimes erotic, funny, and elegaic. Published January 1, 1996.

Poems from How to Get Heat Without Fire are included in Packing Light: New and Selected Poems, Black Widow Press, 2009.

A House of Gathering: Poets on May Sarton’s Poetry, ed. Marilyn Kallet

This is a collection of essays by well-known poets on May Sarton’s poetry. Unique essays by William Stafford, Linda Pastan, Richard Chess, among others. The book includes photos of early drafts of May Sarton’s poetry, and previously unpublished translations from French poetry by Sarton. Edited by Marilyn Kallet. Published January 1, 1985.