This is an indispensable book for anyone interested in Judaism, Biblical Studies, Women’s Studies, Translation, and most of all, Poetry. Who knew scholarship could be this much fun to read?

—Richard Michelson, author of The Language of Angels: A Story About the Reinvention of Hebrew, winner of the National Jewish Book Award

Sarah in the Thicket:
A Poetic Journey Into the Roots of Genesis 22
by Tzivia Gover

‘Sarah in the Thicket’ invites us to journey back to a crossroads in time where we can choose alternate paths of interpretation and understanding that might guide us to more helpful and healing conclusions for our time.

Sarah in the Thicket (forthcoming, October, 2026).
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Most know only the version of Sarah and Abraham’s story they’ve been handed, and they know that one only in its most cursory form. But this story knows us. It has influenced our ideals of womanhood, motherhood, marriage, female friendship, and faith. It has been invoked both to support and to contest a claim to land that remains at the root of conflict to this day.
— Tzivia Gover, Sarah in the Thicket

In Sarah in the Thicket, poet and author Tzivia Gover focuses her lens on Sarah, the first Hebrew Matriarch, through her poetic translation of Genesis Chapter 22: The Binding of Isaac.

In her poetry, notes, and commentary, she unburies the powerful seeds of the Divine Feminine she found among the roots of what has been handed down as the saga of Abraham, patriarch of three of the world’s great traditions.

Gover’s translation series, of which Sarah in the Thicket is the first volume, begins with this climactic chapter, although it falls late in Sarah’s story, and she is startlingly absent from it. That’s because this is where her project began.

As a young mother facing the possibility of losing her own child, the story of Abraham’s near sacrifice of his son inexplicably woke her to the spiritual depth and narrative brilliance of a tale she’d heard read each year at the High Holidays but had never truly connected with. It became an unexpected—and indispensable—source of comfort and hope and sparked her curiosity about the mother who was missing from the traditional recounting. From there, she followed a call to comprehend the mysterious power of The Binding of Isaac to fortify and heal. In the process, she glimpsed Sarah, peering back at us through the thicket of text and time.

Whether you know the texts that inspire this collection well or if you’re coming to them with fresh eyes, you will feel most welcomed into Sarah’s world. Through Gover’s guidance, Sarah’s story feels alive and relevant, inspiring us to reflect on the growth, grief and beauty in our own lives”

—Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer, Author and Spiritual Director; Editor of Ritualwell.org

Tzivia Gover is a poet and certified professional dreamworker. She is the award-winning author of seven nonfiction books, including Dreaming on the Page: Tap Into Your Midnight Mind to Supercharge Your Writing. Tzivia’s poetic translation of Genesis 21 was published by Aôthen Magazine online. Her poetry has also been published in dozens of journals and anthologies, including The Mom Egg Review, Willawaw, The Other Journal, Pensive, and Lilith Magazine. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Creative Nonfiction, and more. Her poetic translation of Genesis 20 from biblical Hebrew was named a finalist for the 2026 Der Hovanessian Translation Prize by The New England Poetry Club, she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and she was one of 36 poets to be accepted into the Yetzirah Poetry Conference 2024. Tzivia earned her MFA in writing from Columbia University and received a certificate in Biblical Hebrew Translation from the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Follow Sarah’s Journey

Tzivia publishes her poems, translations, notes and commentary about Sarah in her online publication, The Life of H: Sarah, Reimagined (tziviagover.substack.com), where you can follow her ongoing journey. When you subscriber to that online publication, you’ll be kept up to date about new posts and publications as they become available. When you become a paid subscriber, you support this work in an essential and deeply meaningful way and make it possible for her to publish more books like this one.

Journey with Sarah on Substack

In Sarah in the Thicket, Tzivia Gover offers a wonderfully creative and interpretive translation of Genesis 22, a feminist retelling that places the matriarch Sarah at its center. What makes the book so compelling is how Gover weaves her own personal story through the text, with candor and clarity. You don’t need to be a Bible enthusiast to love this book; you just need an open mind, and Gover brings that in abundance. This is a book for everyone.

— Joanna Chen, writer and literary translator of contemporary poetry and prose from Hebrew to English.

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Sarah in the Thicket is the first volume in a planned translation series for
The Life of H: Sarah, Reimagined,
a Substack publication online at tziviagover.substack.com.