{{Short description|Russian-American poet and writer}} {{Infobox person | name = Menke Katz | native_name = מעינקע קאַץ | native_name_lang = yi | birth_date = April 12, 1906 | image = Menke Katz.png | caption = Menke Katz in 1939 | birth_place = Svintsyan, Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire (now Švenčionys, Lithuania) | death_date = {{Death date and age|1991|4|24|1906|4|12}} | death_place = Spring Glen, New York, U.S. | occupation = Poet, writer | children = Dovid Katz, Troim Katz Handler }}
'''Menke Katz''' (Yiddish: מעינקע קאַץ; {{IPA|yi|mɛɪnkə}}; April 12, 1906 – April 24, 1991) was an award-winning Yiddish-language and English-language poet and writer of Lithuanian-Jewish descent. He was one of few Yiddish poets based in the United States whose original English poetry also gained prominence.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Prager |first1=Leonard |title=A Review of Menke: The Complete Yiddish Poems |url=http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/tmr/tmr09/tmr09008.htm |website=The Mendele Review: Yiddish Literature and Language |access-date=10 May 2021}}</ref> He was an experimentalist of form and an opponent of rhyme, particularly in his English writing. He was the father of Dovid Katz.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Iržikevičius |first1=Ruslanas |title=Prof. Dovid Katz: I live in Lithuania because I love it |date=12 May 2019 |url=https://lithuaniatribune.com/prof-dovid-katz-i-live-in-lithuania-because-i-love-it/#:~:text=His%20father%20was%20the%20late,he%20taught%20for%2018%20years. |access-date=10 May 2021}}</ref>
==Biography== ===Early life=== On the second night of Passover in 1906, Menke Katz was born in present-day Švenčionys in Lithuania, approximately 50 miles northeast of Vilnius, to father Hirshe-Dovid Katz and mother Badonna Gubersky. In 1914, his father immigrated alone to the United States through Ellis Island. During World War I, his family lived in Micháleshik (now Mikulishki, Belarus). His early poetic inspiration developed while in Micháleshik, influenced by his wartime struggles, the death of his eldest brother, and his near-death visions caused by the Spanish flu. These events provided the impetus for his remaining family to immigrate to New York City in 1920.<ref name="Metzler">{{cite news |last1=Metzler |first1=Betty Jane |title=Poetry Book by Menke Katz Wins Pulitzer Nomination |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-news-menke-katz-1906-1991/129467719/ |work=The Herald-News |date=December 15, 1965 |location=Passaic, NJ |page=30 |access-date=August 5, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}</ref> Soon, his family was reunited with his father in Passaic, New Jersey.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Katz |first1=Dovid |title=INTRO 100804 FINAL |url=https://www.dovidkatz.net/menke/Biography/Menke_biography.pdf |website=dovidkatz.net |access-date=10 May 2021}}</ref>
As a teenager, he moved with a cousin to New York City's Lower East Side where he lived and worked for decades.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}
===Life and career=== Katz published his first poem in ''Spartak'', a publication edited by Vladimir Mayakovsky. He later joined the leftist Yiddish writers' group that became ''Proletpen'' (Yiddish: פּראָלעטפּען). In 1932, he was expelled from the group for publishing his first book, a poetic drama with erotic themes, titled ''Dray shvester'' (Yiddish: דרײַ שװעסטער; "Three sisters"). In 1938, he published his two-volume epic, ''Brenendik shtetl'' (Yiddish: ברענענדיק שטעטל; "Burning village"), that featured descriptions of ''shtetl'' life and its lack of appreciation for socialist realism. His epic also described the experiences of immigration to New York City. He soon published a manifesto titled ''Der braver pakhdn'' (Yiddish: דער בראַװער פּחדן; "The brave coward"), advocating for nonpartisan Yiddish poetry.<ref>{{cite web |title=Menke Katz |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/katz-menke |website=Jewish Virtual Library |access-date=10 May 2021}}</ref>
Beginning in 1944, he started writing in more universal themes, notably with his book ''Inmitn tog'' (Yiddish: אינמיטן טאָג; "Midday") in 1954. It was around this time he began writing in English. In 1956, he published ''A Patched Window'' in ''Commentary''. He also began publishing frequently in ''The Atlantic Monthly'', ''The New York Times'', and ''Poet Lore'', alongside some other English publications.
In 1959, he was arrested in Israel for speaking Yiddish to his son in public.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Experience of Menke Katz, Yiddish-Speaking Poet, in Israel at a Time of Strong Anti-Yiddish Sentiment |url=https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/oral-histories/excerpts/woh-ex-0002207/experience-menke-katz-yiddish-speaking-poet-israel-time-strong-anti-yiddish |website=Yiddish Book Center |access-date=10 May 2021}}</ref>
In 1965, he published his first English book titled ''Land of Manna'' that spoke to the nature of both American city life and ''shtetl'' life.<ref>{{cite web |title=Katz, Menke |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/katz-menke |website=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=10 May 2021}}</ref>
He founded and was the longtime editor of ''Bitterroot Quarterly Poetry Magazine'' which sought unknown talent in poetry.
He published 18 books—9 in Yiddish and 9 in English. His works have been featured in 21 languages, including French, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, and Lithuanian. In 2005, Benjamin and Barbara Harshav translated his 9 Yiddish books into English in ''Menke: The Complete Yiddish Poems of Menke Katz''.
He also worked as a Yiddish instructor. In 1978, he left New York City with his wife and moved to a mountain cabin in Spring Glen, New York where he lived for the remainder of his life.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}
===Awards and nominations=== In 1965, his book of poetry ''Land of Manna'' was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.<ref name="Metzler"/> In 1970, he won his first Stephen Vincent Benét Narrative Poetry Award, receiving a second in 1974 for his ''World of Old Abe''. His 1972 English work titled ''Burning Village'' was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
===Death=== At his home in Spring Glen, New York, Katz died from a heart attack at the age of 85 in his sleep.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Shepard |first1=Richard F. |title=Menke Katz, 85, Poet Appreciated For His Lyrical Style |work=The New York Times |date=26 April 1991 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/26/obituaries/menke-katz-85-poet-appreciated-for-his-lyrical-style.html |access-date=10 May 2021}}</ref>
==Works== Yiddish: * ''Dray shvester'' (1932, the first of two editions through 1993) * ''Der mentsh in togn'' (Yiddish: דער מענטש אין טאָגן; "Humanity at dawn") (1935) * ''Brenendik shtetl'' (1938) * ''S'hot dos vort mayn bobe Moyne'' (Yiddish: ס'האָט דאָס װאָרט מײַן באָבע מױנע; "Grandmother Mona takes the floor") (1939) * ''Tsu dertseyln in freydn'' (Yiddish: צו דערצײלן אין פֿרײדן; "To tell it in happy times") (1941) * ''Der posheter kholem'' (Yiddish: דער פּשוטער חלום; "The simple dream") (1947) * ''Inmitn tog'' (1954) * ''Tsfas'' (Yiddish: צפֿת; "Safed") (1979) * ''Meynke sonetn'' (Yiddish: מעינקע סאָנעטן; "Menke sonnets") (1993)
English: * ''Land of Manna'' (1965, the first of two editions through 2009) * ''Rockrose'' (1970) * ''Burning Village'' (1972) * ''Forever and Ever and a Wednesday'' (1980) * ''Two Friends'' (with Harry Smith) (1981) * ''A Chair for Elijah'' (1985) * ''Two Friends II'' (with Harry Smith) (1988) * ''Nearby Eden'' (1990) * ''This Little Land'' (1992)
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, Menke}} Category:1906 births Category:1991 deaths Category:People from Švenčionys Category:People from Sventsyansky Uyezd Category:Lithuanian Jews Category:Lithuanian emigrants to the United States Category:American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Category:Yiddish-language American poets Category:Jewish American poets Category:20th-century American poets Category:American male poets Category:20th-century American male writers Category:Jewish writers from the Russian Empire Category:Male poets from the Russian Empire Category:20th-century American Jews