Shana Ritter

Applying to the RSA program, I was drawn to working with an interdisciplinary group of artists and academics working from the same text and interpreting it in our own ways, taking both from our experience as well as the conversations and presentations we would share.  

I was immediately attracted to the story of Miriam’s Well, the source of water that accompanied those escaping enslavement and searching for home. I connected Miriam’s water to the pond at the center of my own land which is fed by an underground spring. 

The RSA program offered me the opportunity to bring together research, imagination, the practice of my Jewish tradition and the love of the land I steward, while staying centered on a piece of text much like meditation practice, it kept bringing me back to home. What sustains us? What is our relation to the land we must leave to find the land that becomes our home?  What traditions do we keep, and which do we change?  

My work is a series of interconnected poems in different forms and voices including haibon, couplets and prose poems. I have also used a series of my own photographs and captured some small soundscapes. 

Hear Shana Ritter read A Remembrance of Water

  • Image of pond with cloudy sky, leafless trees, and water
  • Poetry on blank page.
  • poetry on black page
  • poetry and image of natural landscape of pond with leafy trees
  • poetry on blank background
  • poetry on blank background
  • poetry with night landscape of trees and pond
  • poetry on blank background
  • poetry and image of cloudy sky above leafy trees and a pond
  • poetry on a blank background
  • poetry and a natural landscape of mostly clear sky above pond and leafy trees

For a text-only version, click here.

About Shana

Shana Ritter, originally from New York, lives out in the country near Bloomington, Indiana. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in journals and magazines including Lilith, Fifth Wednesday and Georgetown Review. Her chapbook of poetry, Stairs of Separation (2014) explored her mother’s experience as an immigrant. In the Time of Leaving, (2019) a novel of exile and resilience, is set in late 15th century Spain.  A Pushcart prize nominee, she has been awarded the Indiana Individual Artist Grant on numerous occasions. When not at her desk she’s out walking with her dog Emmy, playing with her grandchildren, or listening to the wind rippling the pond. Learn more at http://shana-ritter.com/.