Aviya Kushner

Aviya Kushner is the author of The Grammar of God (Spiegel & Grau / Penguin Random House), a National Jewish Book Award finalist and Sami Rohr Prize finalist, and WOLF LAMB BOMB (Orison Books), a New York Times New & Noteworthy selection and winner of The Chicago Review of Books Award in Poetry. Her translation of Yudit Shahar’s award-winning It’s Me Speaking, is forthcoming (The University of Texas Press, 2027).

She is The Forward’s language columnist and a National Endowment for the Arts fellow in translation. Her writing has been supported by the Howard Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, and she received a Religion News Association Nomination for Religion Reporting Excellence. She is a translation mentor for The National Yiddish Book Center and a board member of the Jewish Language Project.

Three books that have stuck with me:

The Book of Isaiah — I love how the Book of Isaiah makes anger beautiful, and I admire how it melds anger and comfort.

Another Country by James Baldwin — I often reread this novel about the lives of young artists, because it captures so many perspectives on ambition, talent, love, risk, disappointment, and pain, and because of its magnificent descriptions of music.

The Little Virtues by Natalie Ginzburg — These gorgeous essays about writing as a vocation, and the challenge of living a moral life, explore an inner sense of truth--and they are more relevant now than ever.

Something people are always surprised to learn about me:

I once took a plumbing course and can handle basic plumbing repairs. I can also understand plumbers when they talk!

If I could instantly become an expert in one thing, what would it be:

Electrical repair. I love vintage sconces and antique lighting, and wish I could do all the rewiring myself.