Moriel Rothman-Zecher is the author of two novels, Before All the World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), which was named an NPR Best Book of 2022, and Sadness Is a White Bird (Atria Books), which was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, among other honors. Moriel is also the author of the poetry collection, I Still Won’t Have Known (forthcoming from BOA Editions).

Moriel’s work has been published in The American Poetry Review, Barrelhouse, Colorado Review, The Common, Jewish Currents, Lit Hub, Nashville Review, The New York Times, Poetry Daily, The Paris Review’s Daily, ZYZZYVA, and elsewhere. Moriel is the recipient of the National Book Foundation’s ‘5 Under 35’ honor, two MacDowell Fellowships for Literature, and a Donald Hall Scholarship for Poets from the Bennington Writing Seminars, where Moriel received an MFA in Poetry.

Moriel teaches creative writing at Swarthmore College, as a Visiting Assistant Professor of English Literature and Creative Writing, and is also a member of the faculty of the Bennington Writing Seminars’ MFA Program. Moriel lives in West Philadelphia, and, along with poet Mónica Gomery, is the co-host of the 5-3-5 poetry salon.