The Universe with Borscht

By Judith Sanders

Judith Sanders' poems are, like borscht itself, hearty, flavorful, and nourishing. Her dynamic book is a recipe for delight. It lyrically traverses family, memory, fields of knowledge, and locales near and far. Ranging in tone from the humorous to the deeply moving, Sanders' tender and attentive poems illuminate the beauty and wisdom that can be uncovered even in our challenging world.

-Sharon Fagan McDermott, author, Life Without Furniture and co-author, Millions of Suns: On Writing and Life

Sanders' eye is sharp and unerring, her lyric voice full of musicality. The images in The Universe with Borscht leap off the page, and sizzle with life and buoyant energy. Her poetic landscape is visceral, tactile, and intensely felt, yet it's the effervescent wit and humor here that will win you over. This is a book you will want to keep with you as a reminder that there can be joy amid disillusion, and poetry is the elixir that, as Sanders writes, can "fix the broken world / that keeps on breaking."

-Robert Walicki, author, Fountain and Watershed

Each poem in The Universe with Borscht is its own universe. Sanders' details are so vividly drawn that they seem to blink back at you. Even her darkest poems are utterly delicious. She invites us to cruise through daily miracles, concerning herself with the "mundane embedded in sublime and/or vice versa" so consistently that it has become her trademark. Oh, and she is dang funny, too. Underlying this collection is the acknowledgment that being conscious can bring experiences of both pain and beauty, exquisite agonies that can be contained only - and then only just - by poetry.

-M. C. Benner Dixon, author, The Height of Land and co-author, Millions of Suns: On Writing and Life

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1639809856
• ISBN13: 9781639809851
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Kelsay Books
• Length: 122 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"