In her sear­ing and lyri­cal mem­oir The Dark-Robed Moth­er (Wes­leyan Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2026), poet, trans­la­tor, and schol­ar Rachel Tzvia Back invites read­ers into a decades-long jour­ney through depres­sion, loss, and the fierce com­plex­i­ties of motherhood.

Known for her award-win­ning poet­ry and trans­la­tions, Back brings the pre­ci­sion of a poet’s gaze to prose — trans­form­ing pri­vate anguish into a uni­ver­sal med­i­ta­tion on endurance, iden­ti­ty, and the frag­ile art of stay­ing alive.

At the cen­ter of the mem­oir are the ​“cairns” — stone mark­ers that sym­bol­ize moments of clar­i­ty amid emo­tion­al and gen­er­a­tional upheaval. These way­points guide her through post­par­tum depres­sion, bipo­lar dis­or­der, and the inher­it­ed grief that threads through her family’s his­to­ry. Inter­weav­ing myth, mem­o­ry, and lit­er­ary imag­i­na­tion, Back reimag­ines the ancient sto­ry of Deme­ter and Perse­phone as a mir­ror for her own cycles of descent and return.

Set against the back­drop of wartime Israel, The Dark-Robed Moth­er reveals how per­son­al and col­lec­tive strug­gles inter­sect — how exter­nal con­flict echoes inter­nal bat­tle, and how moth­er­hood per­sists with­in uncer­tain­ty. With prose that reads like poet­ry, Back cap­tures the ten­sion between out­ward com­pe­tence and inner col­lapse, offer­ing a nar­ra­tive that is as intel­lec­tu­al­ly res­o­nant as it is emo­tion­al­ly brave.

In con­ver­sa­tion with Rab­bi David Ing­ber, Back will explore the craft behind the mem­oir, the role of lan­guage in sur­vival, and the ways lit­er­a­ture can bear wit­ness to men­tal ill­ness with hon­esty, nuance, and com­pas­sion. Her cairns — these lit­er­ary way­points — illu­mi­nate not only her own path but invite us toward deep­er empa­thy, imag­i­na­tion, and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of light with­in dark­ness.

This event is in partner­ship with the 92nd Street Y. This pro­gram is part of the Bronf­man Cen­ter for Jew­ish Life.