Jon Tadmor
Co-chair, Stanford Center for Poetics
Graduate Coordinator, Workshop in Poetics
Editor, Mantis: A Journal of Poetry, Criticism, and Translation
Jon Tadmor is a PhD candidate in the department of Comparative Literature whose dissertation examines the concept of poetic difficulty in modernist English, Hebrew and Yiddish poetry. His academic writing has appeared in Ot: A Journal of Literary Criticism and Theory.
During his time at Stanford, Jon has served as the graduate coordinator of the Workshop in Poetics and was a part of expanding the workshop into the Stanford Center for Poetics and has been serving as its co-chair since its founding in 2024. Additionally, he served as the graduate representative for Comparative Literature in AY23-24.
Jon holds a B.A. in Literature and the Multidisciplinary Program in the Arts and an M.A. in Literature from Tel Aviv University. His master’s thesis focused on the poetry of Hezy Leskly, one of the first openly queer Hebrew poets and a major figure of late modernism in Hebrew.
Jon is also a poet and translator. His poetry, translations and other written works can be found in Dibur: Curated, Lekol Haruhot Literary Magazine, Oh! Literary Journal and Mantis. Since 2023, Jon has also served as poetry editor at Mantis: A Journal of Poetry, Criticism, and Translation.
Read, listen, watch:
- Charles Bernstein in Conversation with Jon Tadmor, "Conversations, Conversions, Convolutions" (Yvor Winters Conversation Series No. 1, Stanford Center for Poetics). Watch here and read more on Bernstein's Substack.
- Cite & Sound: The Stanford Jewish Studies Podcast (Season 2, Episode 8): Charles Bernstein & Jon Tadmor in conversation on secular Jewish life and poetics. Listen here or on YouTube.
- 3 Poems from Hezy Leskly's "Empty Dances" cycle, translated from the Hebrew, in Mantis: A Journal of Poetry, Criticism & Translation Issue 23 (2025).
- "Hezy Leskly's Translational Poetics" [in Hebrew], peer-reviewed article in Ot: A Journal of Literary Criticism and Theory Issue 12 (2024)
- "Let's Say" by Avot Yeshurun, translated from the Hebrew, along with the essay "The Beauty of the Unsolved: On Translating a Difficult Poem" in Dibur: Curated (Thinking with Literature).