Edith Michaeli Covensky (aa6477)

Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures

455 Manoogian
906 West Warren
Detroit, MI 48201
(Since January of 1987)

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Edith Covensky was born in Bucarest, Romania, grew up in Haifa, Israel, and lives in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She completed her military service in Israel, serving as a code breaker in the Northern Command. She received a ribbon of honor at the completion of her basic training and a Certificate of Excellence at her discharge. Covensky reached the highest professional rank in code-breaking during her military service.

Edith Covensky's academic journey is marked by her extensive research and dedication. She completed her Baccalaureat at the Alliance Francaise Israelite in Haifa, Israel (Kol Israel Haverim, in Hebrew) and continued her education at Wayne State University In French and Hebrew Literature passing her Ph.D. examinations with Distinction. Her focus was on 19th-century French literature, and she conducted in-depth research on the theater of Alexander Dumas the Father under the direction of Professor Fernande Bassan. As a traveling scholar at The University of Michigan, she completed her Hebrew studies, with her Hebrew Ph.D. qualifying examination delving into Tanaitic literature from the 1st to 3rd centuries A.D.

Covensky has published 36 books of poetry since 1985. Her poetry has been translated (from the original Hebrew) into English, Romanian, Arabic, French and Spanish. She is the editor of Pseifas, an Israeli literary Journal dedicated to classical and modern Hebrew poetry. Her articles have appeared in Israel and Canada. Covensky is proud to teach at Wayne State University in the Near East area. She teaches the Modern Hebrew Language, Women Poets of the Middle East, Israeli Culture: A Pluralistic Perspective, Film of the Middle East and an immigration course: New Soil, Old Roots: The Immigration Experience. 

Covensky teaches Hebrew and Israeli studies at Wayne State University, including Israeli film. She serves on the committee of the Annual Jewish Film Festival of Metro Detroit, which has a branch in West Bloomfield and writes film reviews for the Festival. She is married to Harvey Covensky, an Attorney, and has two children, Jeffrey and Laurice, who are also attorneys. Her grandchildren are Aden and Ainsley of San Diego, California.

Her area of expertise is contemporary Israeli poetry, from the latter half of the 19th century to the present. Her numerous poetic manifests appear in her poetry in books such as Poetics, Synesis, Variations on a Theme of Albert Camus, Testimony, On the Border of Water, Life as Fiction and Portrait of a Poet, published in Hebrew in Israel and English in the United States. Identifications is a book of poems published in Romanian and translated by Menachem Faleck. The book Genesis was published in Spanish by Leviathan Publishers in Argentina in 2019. Covensky is working on a new book entitled Bistro 77.

Covensky's interest in Hebrew/Israeli film spans from Yaakov Ben Dov (second decade of the 20th century) to the present, and she has extended her passion to other films in the Middle East, notably from Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Beyond the Israeli context, her diverse film interests reflect her broad knowledge and deep understanding of the region's cinematic landscape. Covensky consistently receives voluntary teaching evaluations and thank you notes from her students, which are a testament to her inspiring commitment.

Covensky has written articles and book reviews on Israeli poets such as Yaara Ben David, Hedva Harechavi, Dalia Ravikovitch, Lea Goldberg, Zelda and Agi Mishol. As mentioned above, Covensky is writing another book, Bistro 77, and is currently translating it into English. She also records the five parts of this book in Hebrew and English. 

Edith Covensky and her poetry have been written about in several Israeli newspapers. Covensky had a 55 minutes interview and poetry reading on Israel Radio hosted by Zohar Noy.

Please refer to the CV for the list of publications, both books and individual poems. To date, Covensky has published 36 poetry books in Hebrew, Hebrew/English, Hebrew/Arabic/English, Hebrew/French, Romanian, and Spanish.

Edith Covensky also published a Hebrew/English dialogue book, Where to Go?, which she uses in her Hebrew courses.

Other books

• "A Reality that is Not"
• "Night Poems: Bilingual Edition"
• "Portrait of a Poet"
• "Mikrokosmos"

Covensky studied the violin from the age of five to 16. This is relevant to language learning and teaching because making musical sounds is like making talking sounds. Also, music has theory, and language has grammar, both of which are needed for correct playing and speaking, respectively.