The Paideia School

Junior High homebase teacher Elly Bookman publishes her first book of poetry

Elly Bookman, a homebase teacher in the Junior High and the newspaper advisor in the High School, published her first book of poetry "Love Sick Century" on September 24. Elly has previously had work appear in publications, such as The New Yorker, The Paris Review and The American Poetry Review

Elly Bookman's "Love Sick Century"

In January 2023, Elly won the 42 Miles Press Poetry Award, and with it, the chance to publish her work. She described the collection as a hybrid of narrative and theme with three arcs: love and relationships, politics and the handling of modern warfare. “All these good and bad things that happen in our world in some way start with love or a desire to be loved or the desire to give love. The poems explore all the different directions,” Elly says, outlining the hypothesis the collection proposes.

The collection is stylistically influenced by poets, such as Frank O’Hara, Matthew Dickman and Mary Ruefle - Elly’s all-time favorite. The work also references pop culture — highlighting poets and musicians, such Jeff Buckley, Muddy Waters, John Berryman and Paul Celan — and current events, like the COVID-19 shutdown. Describing the work, Elly says “It’s not deliberate, but by nature I love movies and music and reality TV as much as the next person. I like to combine and play with the highbrow and lowbrow.”

Elly’s writing not only connects her to the world, but to her students. In our most recent magazine “Finding Your Voice,” Elly spoke to the importance of writing within our community, how to incorporate a writing practice into one’s life and what inspires her to write. Through the writing process, Elly empathizes with her students as they struggle with wording or edits, but she also shares in their joy as they submit a final draft. As a writing teacher, Elly wants her students to not only acquire the skills necessary to be a competent writer, but to feel that they can articulate their ideas and have those ideas received and understood. For her students, there is excitement and pride seeing their teacher published.

Congratulations, Elly! To read more about Elly’s book “Love Sick Century,” click here. You can also read more about her writing process and what inspires Elly to write in “The Writer’s Room” feature of our fall magazine.

Elly and class with her book of poetry