Publications

Sight Lines (Midmarch Arts Press)

“"Charlotte Mandel presses down on ’the holding pedal of memory’ preserving for us a World War II childhood, events of a long marriage, and domestic and foreign scenes that combine the common-place and the bizarre in crisp and lucid language.” - Maxine Kumin

“A wordsmith of wisdom and exuberance, Charlotte Mandel brings daily life to fresh meaning in this new book. Vivid her vocabulary and exhilarating her synesthetic senses . . . Here is poetry for which we must all be grateful.”
- F. D. Reeve

The Marriages of Jacob, a poem-novella (Micah Publications)

“This is really beautiful poetry, original in conception and sustained in execution. It feels sacred through and through, although with no sense of piety. Charlotte Mandel’s poem-novella is lyric, substantial, authentic.” - Alicia Ostriker

“A rich tapestry of biblical lore comes alive in fine, vigorous language. Erotic and sensual in parts, the poem-novella is seamless, with authority in detail, and power in the musical surge of its rhythms.” - Colette Inez

“The reader can only marvel at Charlotte Mandel’s vivid images and musical narrative.” - Independent Publisher

The Life of Mary, a poem-novella; book and audiotape of author reading the entire work with musical accompaniment by composer-guitarist David Hauer  (Saturday Press)

“Ambitious and poignant, Mandel’s long poem mediates beautifully between the ’great time’ in which divine, mythic events occur and the ongoing, historical time in which we all live. . . That Mandel is telling a story through a sequence of lyrics is fascinating. . . locating herself in a female -- indeed, often consciously feminist -- tradition of revisionary mythology. Parent, child, poet, and reader: all will be moved by this extraordinary text.” - Sandra M. Gilbert

Keeping Him Alive

“A fine elegiac sequence, continuously touching, continuously well done, sensitive and clear.” - Hayden Carruth

A Disc of Clear Water

“I like the human quality of these poems, the way they come to earth, and also step forward.” - Robert Bly

“. . . offers new and at times shattering insights into the relation between mothers and daughters.” - Library Journal

“. . . makes the earth blossom, the bread rise . . . Charlotte Mandel is an observer, a diviner, she’s an ordinary woman passionately in touch with extraordinary realities of everyday life.” - Carol Muske-Dukes

Doll

“A book of immaculate precision, every word an exact cup.”
- Cynthia Ozick

Saturday’s Women

An anthology of poems by finalists in the Eileen W. Barnes Award contest to publish a first book by a woman poet over 40. Edited and with Introduction by Charlotte Mandel; co-edited Maxine Silverman and Rachel Hadas.

“Impressive in its breadth, gratifying in its strength, this anthology is a storehouse of necessary poems written by women and addressed to the world.” - Maxine Kumin