Death & Transfiguration
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FAMILY:  Poems
by Joy Ladin
Persea Books. 76 pages, $17.

ONCE OUT OF NATURE
Selected Essays on the Transformation of Gender
by Joy Ladin
Persea Books, 158 pages, $20.

THE 20TH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHER Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote about prophets both ancient and modern, such as his good friend Martin Luther King. Heschel’s notion of a prophet was of someone who tells us truths about reality that many of us cannot or would prefer not to see. Whenever I read the words of Joy Ladin, my cells tingle in a way that tells me I’m in the presence of a living prophet.

Eli Andrew Ramer’s most recent book is Ever After: The Extended Lives and Work of Eleven Famous Writers.