Ditta Baron Hoeber: Without You

Bird's is happy to welcome artist and poet, Ditta Baron Hoeber, for an intimate poetry reading and discussion celebrating her new release, Without You. Hoeber will be reading an excerpt from the book, followed by a back-and-forth discussion and Q&A session.

This will be seated and requires a purchased ticket. Afterwards, Hoeber will be signing copies of the book. Your ticket purchase includes a copy of Without You to be signed.

About the Book

An infant is mortally ill and cries and cries. A child wishes the terrible crying to end. The infant dies. Without You is without the infant. It is also without the self that hides from itself in fear of itself. It is a record of the struggle to understand and to restore the self. The photographs described in the poems act as evidence – who was there, who was I, what does it mean. Making art is portrayed as an act of exploration and as a means of staying alive. The writing is formed to parallel the interplay of masked and unmasked thoughts that are the slow and nonlinear path to recognition and to understanding in this powerful gripping sequence.

Words From Others

As “a line of light falls across my eye. // one line of forgiveness then // was all that I could do,” Ditta Baron Hoeber inscribes loss and yet, in the delineation of that tension, that predicament, she also enacts a form of recovery and recognition that enlivens us all. This is a spare and deeply moving book. — Arthur Sze, National Book Award winner for The Glass Constellation

In flashes of recollection, in flares of supposition and speculation, the fragments and fables of Ditta Baron Hoeber’s Without You trace the aftermath of a childhood trauma,  with its attendant guilts and resentments and mystifications. Terse, taut, gnomic, wrenching, and subtly evocative, Without You offers a compelling demonstration of a reality at once irrecoverable and irrevocable. — Nathalie Anderson, Professor Emerita, Swarthmore College, author of Stain

The world Ditta Baron Hoeber’s poems come from is a strange one. The poetry there is written in many languages – all of which she speaks fluently. She is the last remaining person to speak one other language from that place. I can think of no other way to describe this astonishing original work. The subjects of Without You are loss, love, ghosts, ceremony, celebration. “There is always something of interest something more I want to know and so I keep on” – in her words. These are the souvenirs and snapshots she has brought back with her. These fierce, dazzling, piercing poems are Ditta Baron Hoeber’s gifts to us. — Leonard Gontarek, author of The Long Way Home

About the Author

Ditta Baron Hoeber is a poet and an artist living in Philadelphia, has handmade over 200 artist’s books. This is the first book others have made for her. Schooled as an artist, Hoeber came to poetry on her own. Published in The Journal of American Poetry, Juxtaprose, Burningword Literary Review, and the American Poetry Review, among others, Hoeber’s visual art has also been acquired by collections across the US and in London.

Hoeber is represented by Gallery 12.26 in Dallas. Her work will be on display at Dallas Art Fair, April 16-19, 2026.

Tickets

Reserved seat at the poetry reading + copy of the book: $25
Signing line: $19.95

Both ticket options include a copy of Without You to be signed.

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