With more than 70 produced plays and many produced screenplays, playwright/director/author Israel Horovitz presents a new dimension to his creative output in Heaven and Other Poems, the 75-year-old author's first-ever authorized poetry collection. A tour-de-force of emotion, empathy and deep, melancholic beauty, Heaven and Other Poems is a stunning collection of work crafted over a lifetime. From the epic poem "Stations of the Cross" with its startling, tenderly crafted images of familial love and loss, to the punchy and pointed aphorisms of the twin "Defining the French Novel" and "Defining the American Novel" Horovitz displays a remarkable range, and—throughout—a deep understanding of humanity. As the most-produced American playwright in French theatre history, many of his poems naturally are set in France, where Horovitz often directs French-language productions of his plays. The collection is filled with surprises and special gifts, such as the never-before-published translation of one of his poems by master playwright Samuel Beckett, from whom Horovitz found thematic and stylistic inspiration for his own work. A truly inspired poetry collection, which is, in turn, truly inspiring and fulfilling to its audience.