Ben Berman

“Ben Berman’s Writing While Parenting (Able Muse Press), vignettes on life and art, juxtaposes freshness and humour with frustration and puzzlement, exhaustion and sadness. Glimpses of his life as father and husband, poet and teacher and Jew, take us on car trips and into classrooms and playgrounds. Peering into a grubby refrigerator we may hear the voices of Eliot or Rumi, Jonathan Safran Foer or Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi. Modest in tone as in scale, Berman’s anecdotes avoid sentimentality or pat morals; they offer charm as well as insight in palatable doses.” Rachel Hadas, Times Literary Supplement

“Ben Berman’s witty, brainy, soulful look at writing-while-parenting will speak to every parent – and every writer – committed to understanding the way that having kids raises the stakes for – and loosens the reins of – how we speak and write. What we blurt out, what we write down, the letters we help our children form and those we hold ourselves back from forming for them – all matter. Every writer speaks to posterity, but Berman shows how parenthood brings that message – literally – home.” —Elisa New, Director and host of Poetry in America

“Writing While Parenting, Ben Berman’s wonderful new collection, is a striking work of wit, wisdom, and authenticity. His narratives read like micro-memoirs: deep meditations on marriage and family in dramatic structures “between song and thought.” In addressing daily routines, dinner dates, and making M&M pancakes, these essays, like poetry, intertwine “imprecise meanings and [a] tangling of tones.” This collection is as much about parenthood as it is process. For the writer, it is a reminder to see opportunity in every moment. I am enamored with Berman’s care and precision with language and meaning. These essays are full of surprises, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary at every turn.” —January O’Neil, author of Rewilding

“Ben Berman’s collection reveals a writer who is an astute reader, one situated within the community of literature, referencing other texts in ways dialogic and fruitful to us, readers of his text.  Here Berman knits a kinship of the poetic, the philosophical, the etymological, and the revelatory in essays remarkable for their scope, surprises, and sheer delights.  The fundamental kinship of family and its metaphors is the beautiful beating heart of this book, and Berman’s skill as a storyteller gives that heart amazing life.”—Danielle Legros Georges, Boston Poet Laureate, 2015-2019

“This is a charming read, joining the joys and frustrations of being a parent with the similar characteristics of one’s profession. As Berman imparts parental and writing advice in each chapter, his love of both shines through with every word.” —Booklist

“Ben Berman’s new collection of essays, Writing While Parenting, is a cornucopia of delights. A feast of original, genuinely funny, whip smart insights into writing, language, and parenting yes, but also a deep dive into the sheer joy and wonder of being alive. Highly recommended.” — Erica Ferencik (Author of Girl in Ice and River at Night)

“A wonderful collection of essays for parents and non-parents alike!” — Newpages

“This book is tender and thoughtful, full of advice about writing and living woven with stories of the unexpected happenings of parenting… There are times when one of the essays turns from meditation to a hilarious description of the unpredictability of children, and I found myself laughing out loud, often until I cried, at the unexpected antics of his daughters, and how he relates those antics to writing.” — Hippocampus Magazine

“Berman’s voice is at once serious and witty, certain and questioning, funny and full of sincere self-reflection. He attentively explores parallels and contradictions, mixing wordplay with wonder… [T]he way he switches from silly to serious and back again, the glimpses into the mundane yet bizarre moments of a parent’s daily life all pair seamlessly with his meditations on what it means to be a working writer to give us a book that appeals to poets, parents, and lovers of memoir and flash fiction.” — SmokeLong Quarterly

“Disguised by its amiability, carried along by its lovingly rendered scenes of parenting, Writing While Parenting is in fact a master class in reading and writing poetry.” — Solstice Literary Magazine