A Secret Chord: Exploring Leonard Cohen’s Sacred/Secular Songs

Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, best known for signature songs inclusing as “Suzanne” and “Hallelujah” was also a poet and novelist who considered poetry and song to be a form of prayer. Many of Cohen’s song lyrics are woven with references to the Bible and Jewish liturgy.

Join writer Amy Gottlieb for an interactive exploration of Cohen’s powerful creative work and discover how his lyrics express a desire for transcendence and relationship with God. We’ll unpack several songs, examining how Cohen wrestles poetically with Jewish texts and theology. Cohen’s song lyrics will inspire writing prompts to generate your own poems, prose or even song lyrics.

Both sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Amy Gottlieb‘s debut novel The Beautiful Possible was a finalist for the 2017 Harold U. Ribalow Prize, a 2016 National Jewish Book Award and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award. Her fiction and poetry have been published in Other Voices, Lilith, Puerto del Sol, Ilanot Review, On Being, Zeek, Storyscape, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry, and elsewhere. She has received a Literary Fellowship and Residency from the Bronx Council on the Arts and an Arts Fellowship from the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. Amy is a graduate of Clark University and the University of Chicago. She lives with her family on the edge of the Hudson River in New York City.