Kinship, a new poetry collection from Boston College Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies Maxim D. Shrayer, weaves together some of the principal themes in modern Jewish history, exploring such topics as ancestry in Eastern Europe, the Shoah, antisemitism, the refusenik experience, exile, displacement and immigration, and Zionism and Israel. “Shrayer’s richly orchestrated and formally elegant verse captures with poignancy and passion what it feels like to be a Jewish poet with Soviet roots, living in America during Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine,” the publisher, Finishing Line Press, notes of the 33-poem collection. Shrayer has authored and edited more than 25 books in English and Russian, including the poetry collection Of Politics and Pandemics and the memoirs Waiting for America, Leaving Russia, and Immigrant Baggage. Read more on Shrayer and Kinship in BC News.