Swimming in the Rain

Chana Bloch (1940-2017) was a poet, translator, scholar, and teacher. During her lifetime she authored six books of poems and six books of translations of Hebrew poetry both ancient and contemporary. She also authored a critical study on George Herbert. Bloch was professor emerita of English literature and creative writing at Mills College, where she directed the creative writing program.

"Imagine that what seems so familiar, so intimate, so known, was once strange. Chana Bloch renders this transformation from the unfamiliar to the familiar and back again with extraordinary aplomb in her collection of selected and new poems, Swimming in the Rain. Bloch’s gift in this collection is her deft hand at capturing the moment of human discovery through transformation." —The Rumpus"Award-winning poet and translator Chana Bloch’s latest collection of poems, Swimming in the Rain: New and Selected Poems, does not disappoint. With a strong mothering nudge, Bloch ushers us toward a deeper understanding of what is passed between generations. The collection spans from 1980 to 2015 and provides an exquisite overview of the poet’s cumulative power." —Foreword Reviews"Chana Bloch is an absolutely essential poet, with a breathtaking gift for spanning, linking and leaping—unforgettable images, wonderments, and wisdom. Her words travel with me at the center of my compass. This collection is a triumph, not to be missed." —Naomi Shihab Nye"Chana Bloch is writing the best poems of her life. Death is the Great Master hovering in the distance, but this pleasure-loving poet will not be deterred. Chana Bloch is like a Japanese potter mending the cracked and dinged pottery of experience with gold powder sprinkled from her fingers." —Henri Cole "Chana Bloch has spent her life writing the poems of a grown woman, loving the world as she interrogates it mercilessly, speaking a truth that hurts as it heals. 'Half the stories/ I used to believe are false,' she confesses. 'Thank God/ I’ve got the good sense at last/ not to come in out of the rain.' A thrilling collection." —Dorianne Laux