Murray Silverstein

Any Old Wolf

“Casting a wide-ranging eye over ‘the all-time tragicomic brew’ of contemporary life, Murray Silverstein in these poems encourages us to look at life through the double lenses of humor and compassion. Over and over, he reminds us that ‘the sacrament is to live,’ and to try as best we can to keep ‘delight, all its possibilities’ in clear sight. This is a decidedly human, decidedly felt collection of poems—generous and restorative at once.” —Carl Phillips, author of The Tether

Murray Silverstein grew up in Los Angeles, California. He wrote poetry in his teens and twenties but set this work aside to become an architect, studying at UC Berkeley in the 1960s. He is the co-author of four books about architecture, including the classic, A Pattern Language (Oxford University Press, 1977) and Patterns of Home (The Taunton Press, 2001). In his 50s, he returned to writing poetry; his work has appeared in Fourteen Hills, Connecticut Review, Zyzzyva, and other literary journals. A partner in the firm of JSW/D Architects, Berkeley, Mr. Silverstein lives in Oakland, California. Any Old Wolf is his first collection of poems.