Dr. Joy Ladin, David and Ruth Gottesman Professor of English and director of the Beren Writing Center, was recently awarded fellowships with National Endowment for the Arts Creative Non-Fiction and with the Hadassah Brandeis Institute for a forthcoming book. She also recently published a poetry chapbook, Answers to the Name “Lucky” (Blue Lyra Press). Ladin is a nominee for Sundress Publications’ "Best of the Net" for a poem called "I Robot" and is a finalist for the Erbacce Prize in Poetry for a collection titled "Flourishing." Ladin’s poetry book Impersonation (Sheep Meadow Press) was a finalist for the Lamda Literary Award. Earlier this year, Ladin was a featured poet at Smith College and the Jewish Women’s Archive, delivering lectures and a poetry reading to students and faculty. Ladin gave several presentations recently throughout the United States and abroad. She spoke at Paideia - The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden on how Judaism portrays divine-human relationships and how our understandings of those relationships change as we become more inclusive. At the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, Ladin gave a reading and talk about the representation of gender in poetry. At the Associated Writing Programs Conference, Ladin lectured and read poetry about addressing God in verse. Ladin also gave presentations at the Modern Language Association Convention in Austin, Texas, Yeshivat Maharat in the Bronx, the Hadassah Brandeis Institute in Waltham, Massachusetts, Jewish Theological Seminary and Columbia University Hillel in New York.