Leaves Falling Backwards

by Tish Pearlman

98 pages, Paperback

Published March 29, 2024

About the author

Tish Pearlman is a poet, writer, broadcast journalist and community and political activist originally from Manhattan Beach, California. She is host of the award-winning public radio interview show “Out of Bounds,” which airs on 4 NPR affiliates. “Out of Bounds” has been airing since April 21, 2005. In 2008, the program was awarded “Outstanding Public Affairs Program Series” by the New York State Broadcasters Association. “Out of Bounds” features intimate interviews with people living, working and thinking outside the mainstream. The show features local, national and regional guests from all walks of life, including writers, poets, playwrights, scientists, educators, journalists, community activists and discussion of political and cultural issues. Pearlman is a 1986 graduate of The Columbia School of Broadcasting, San Francisco, California. She has worked as a host/interviewer on KPFA-FM in Berkeley, Live-105 in San Francisco, and two cable-TV shows: Out Talk Magazine and Q-TV, both in San Francisco. As a freelancer, she also did voiceovers, public service announcements and documentary film narration. In Ithaca, she was the interim News Director/Morning Anchor on WHCU's Morning Report, as well as news anchor on WVBR's Mix in the Morning. She also hosted The Amnesty International Human Rights Journal on Ithaca's Channel 13.
Pearlman is also a poet. In the 1970’s Pearlman gave many readings at political and literary events on the central California coast, including Cal Poly, Dandelion Wine Book Company, Cuesta College, Day with Creative Women arts events and Take Back the Night rallys and many local bookstores and coffehouses. Her work also appeared in several literary journals and local magazines, including, Street Cries Magazine, Expressive Arts Review, Adventures in Poetry Anthology, Carousel Quarterly, California NOW Times and Latitude/20. Her current work has appeared in The Healing Muse (2010 and 2011, 2012, 2013), The IthacaTimes, The Syracuse Post-Dispatch Healthy CNY Magazine, Conversations Across Borders and Earth’s Daughters. One of her poems was accepted for an anthology “The Art of Medicine in Metaphors,” edited by James Borton and published by Copernicus Healthcare Publishers in January 2013. Her first collection, a chapbook of poetry retelling her near death heart surgery experience, is entitled “The Fix Is In” and was published by Finishing Line Press in January 2012.
Her second collection “Afterlife” will be published in 2014.
In January 2013 she was named POET LAUREATE of Tompkins County, NY. She will continue her appointment through 2014.

Prior to her move to Ithaca, New York in 1999, Pearlman lived for many years in the San Luis Obispo area and in San Francisco. She also spent time traveling in Europe, and lived for three years in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Reviews

[Ali Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tish Pearlman has written a soul-baring account of her almost fatal heart attack and her long, miraculous recovery. She writes with an uncanny specificity of being gravely ill and the struggle to regain consciousness and life. Though the subject is heavy, Pearlman has a delicate touch. Her meditations are profound without being ponderous or dense. In fact, their delicate revelations at times recall the work of Emily Dickinson. “I imagine spring as a / Symptom of having / Survived….” There’s mystery coupled with clarity as Pearlman encounters the greatest conundrums – time and mortality. “Her body and soul were / turned inside out / And given over to / the roar of eternity.” “Is time still ringing / The bells of 17th century / Churches?” The poems move with beautiful fluidity: the entire collection can be read in one or two sittings, though you’ll want to experience this work again and again. As well as poetry fans, Leaves Falling Backwards will captivate anyone who appreciates memoirs written with preternatural sensitivity and devastating honesty. The truths here are at times frightening, at times consoling. “Well said, said the god of welcome. / You will always be home.”

[Carol Painter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh Tish...This is so beautiful. Before I got this, I wasn't sure I would be able to read the "After" parts (since I was there that entire time)...you are and were meant to be the poet...I can only say how amazing and inspiring this has turned out to be.
And, as the poet Susan Deer Cloud said of this: "This is a feminist book rendered with poems of quiet dignity and ethereal evocations, a "no bullshit" shock to the heart of anyone who reads it."
Well done, my friend. Well done.