Backlist Book Club: Spellbook for the Sabbath Queen

Spellbook for the Sabbath Queen was one of our first full-length poetry releases back in the spring of 2023, after featuring poetry by Elisheva Fox in our inaugural Mid/South Anthology the previous fall. It’s a remarkable collection of longing and imagination, and we’re forever grateful to have it in our catalog.

Read on for more from Elisheva about the book and what she’s working on now.

What inspired the ideas/material for your book?

In Jewish tradition, we end each week with the candlelighting, wine, and challah - and this braided, rich bread is sort of the embodiment of Spellbook. As much as I have tried to slough off my Texan heritage, I find that I can’t. My roots are braided together so tightly that I can’t explore just Judaism, or just Texas, or just queerness, or just motherhood. Spellbook is an ode to the ways we are bound and braided together.

What challenges (if any) did you face in getting it published?

Luckily, Spellbook found a swift home with Belle Point, and I really can’t say enough good things about the Belle Point crew. Fellow authors, Belle Point is a spectacular home for your work.

Describe some of your favorite moments when seeing your book enter the world.

Some snippets of sweetness: seeing a mother holding up my book at the ISJL conference and declaring that it helped her understand her daughter’s emergence as a late-blooming queer woman; seeing my book on the shelves of my childhood friend’s new bookstore; reading a review of Spellbook from Jewish Book Council, the first place to ever publish one of my poems.

How have readers responded to the book?

Overwhelmingly kindly and positively. I have received many notes from late-blooming queer folks who feel seen in its pages, and Spellbook seems to resonate clearly with Southern Jews, who navigate a different world from the delis and streets of more urban Jewish culture.

Is there a favorite piece or passage you’d like us to highlight?

Now, years after its publication, I find myself reading “inquisition.” more and more often. It echoes the feral teeth I am exploring in my current writing.

Do you have any thoughts for other writers looking to get published?

Talk to everyone. Find folks who hear the same music that you do, and find a way to sing together. We are a community, writers and publishers, and community is how we will survive the current nightmare of the world.

What are you working on now?

I am polishing my next manuscript, Prayerbook for the Ghost Wolves, and I am eagerly awaiting the publication of one of my longest poems, “psalm for time, all cinnamon and salt.” in Image.