The Short Fall from Grace

WINNER OF THE 2005 BLUE LIGHT BOOK AWARD ~~~ Stewart Florsheim was born in New York City, the son of
refugees from Hitler's Germany. He has received several
awards for his poetry and has been widely published in
magazines and anthologies. He was the editor of Ghosts of the
Holocaust, an anthology of poetry by children of Holocaust
survivors (Wayne State University Press, 1989). He wrote the
poetry chapbook, The Girl Eating Oysters (2River, 2004). He also
writes non-fiction. Stewart's day job is in the technical writing
field. He also sits on the board of directors of Compassion and
Choices of Northern California, an organization that helps the
terminally ill make end-of-life decisions. Stewart lives in the San
Francisco Bay Area with his wife, two daughters, and dog.
~~~~~ The following poems appeared in Round Table, 1986: "The Girl
Eating Oysters," "The Jewish Singles Event," "The Best Bread
in Montparnasse"
"The Jewish Singles Event" appeared in Ghosts of the Holocaust
(Wayne State University Press, 1989) and in Unsettling America:
Race and Ethnicity in Contemporary American Poetry (Viking
Penguin, 1994)
"The Kitchen Sink" appeared in Karamu, 1993 (under the title,
"The Hotel Albert, 1969") and in Slipstream 19, 1999
"My Father's Autopsy" appeared in DoubleTake, 2:4, Fall, 1996
"Recent Findings, 1996" appeared in And What Rough Beast:
Poems at the End of the Century (under the title, "Recent
Findings") (The Ashland Poetry Press, 1999)
"The Only Jew in Oswiecim" appeared in Poetry on the Akeda as
Modern Midrash by Rabbi Steven Chester, 1999
"Exposed" appeared in Rattle 14, 2000
"Thirst" appeared in 88, A Journal of Contemporary American
Poetry, Issue 1, December, 2001 and Compassion and Choices
Magazine, Volume 4, Number 1, Spring, 2005
"Survival" appeared in the Seatttle Review Volume XXV, Number
1, 2002
"Retribution" appeared in Poetica, 2003
"Initiation" and "The Unseen" appeared in Full Circle, Volume
1, Issue 6, 2003
"Mr. S" and "Once, After Swimming" appeared in The 2River
View, Winter 8.2, 2004