Expertise

First Year Writing, Creative Writing, Literature, Popular Fiction, Poetry, Feminism, Theatre

Biography

Lisa Grunberger is an Assistant Professor in English and First Year Writing. She teaches courses in critical writing and reading, composition, creative writing, poetry, literature, and popular fiction. She holds a doctorate in Comparative Religions with a specialty in American Cultural History from the University of Chicago Divinity School. She has published on physical culture pioneer Bernarr Macfadden in Sex, Religion, Media (Rowman and Littlefield, 2002). She has published two books – a collection of poetry, Born Knowing (Finishing Line Press, 2012) and Yiddish Yoga: Ruthie’s Adventures in Love, Loss and the Lotus Position (Harper Collins, 2009), which she is adapting as a stage performance called Yiddish Yoga: The Musical. She is a widely published poet in such journals as Mudfish, The Drunken Boat, Bridges, Philadelphia Poets, Paroles des Jours, and Dialogi, one of the principle Slovenian journals of literature and culture. Her poems have also been translated into Russian and Yiddish. Her one-woman show, A Prayer Collector, premiered at the Makor Center for the Arts/92 St Y.

She is the Arts and Culture Editor at the Philadelphia Jewish Voice. She is a recipient of a Dorbrecht Reward from the Society of Independent Scholars for her work on the intersection between Judaism and Yoga. Her monologue, On Resemblance: From Island to Bridge was performed at the Association for Jewish Theatre’s annual conference (2014); it is part of a larger ethnographic theatre project called The Fertility Monologues, which is based on extensive interviews with professionals and families involved in the vast, complex world of artificial reproductive technologies. She is currently involved with Temple’s new initiative to teach courses in Digital Storytelling. In addition to teaching courses for the mind, Lisa also teaches courses on Yoga and Writing called Facing the Blank Page, Facing the Yoga Mat which are especially designed for writers and artists to help overcome writer’s block. She travels around the country frequently with her book Yiddish Yoga to book-stores, synagogues, and yoga centers.

Selected Publications

• Born Knowing (Finishing Line Press, 2012)
• Yiddish Yoga: Ruthie’s Adventures in Love, Loss and the Lotus Position (Harper Collins, 2009)

Courses Taught

• English 0701: Introduction to Academic Discourse
• English 0802: Analytical Reading and Writing
• Introduction to Poetry
• Popular Fiction
• Creative Acts: Poetry and the Short Story