Publications & Resources

Unparalleled Poetry: A Cognitive Approach to the Free-Rhythm Verse of the Hebrew Bible

Cognition and Poetics Series

New York: Oxford University Press, 2023

This monograph argues that the modern framework of "parallelism" is not adequate for understanding the structures and effects of biblical Hebrew poetry. I draw upon studies of human perception and the arts to present a new framework for how aural free-rhythm lines are possible in biblical poetry—and even more, how they are a good cognitive fit, as lines fit to lines in part-whole organization. How we understand and hear poetic lines affects how we experience and interpret biblical poems.

Note: The content of my earlier articles on David’s Lament (2017) and Symmetry in the Song of Deborah (2021) is revised and expanded and included in the monograph.

Configuring Psalm 29 as a Poem: Cognitive Strategies and the Artful Reading Experience

Religions 15 (2024): 1428

In this article I use color and mark-ups to demonstrate the concepts of Unparalleled Poetry, showing what Psalm 29 does as a poem and how it does it.

On the Nature of Poetry, Parallelism, and Methods: A Response to Ernst Wendland

Journal of Translation 20, no. 2 (2024): 81-97

This article sets my work within the broader context of biblical poetry studies, explaining ways that I build upon and also depart from the work of other scholars.