My latest book, Cooking with the Muse: A Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry, and Literary Fare, is the broadest in scope of all of my books, highlighting fresh local ingredients and encouraging the use of seasonal produce, wild seafood, traditional fats, and healthy meat from pasture-raised animals. It contains 150 nutritious international recipes with a plenitude of imaginative writing about food and ingredients, including informative essays; playful practical and historical notes; lots of amazing poems; and 200 full-color photographs.

Coauthored with writer-poet-scholar (and my beloved partner) Stephen Massimilla, this book is really fun to read.

Check out the Cooking with the Muse website.

PRAISE FOR
COOKING WITH THE MUSE

“literally delicious”

“what a treasure trove”

“vertiginous, seductive, learned book”

“holistic masterpiece”

“a book I want to cuddle up with…”

“savory layers of enjoyment”

{Cooking with the Muse shows how poetry and food are connected by the cycles of Nature, the seasons, the landscape; the stuff poets write about... Stephen Massamilla, a professor and accomplished poet, brings much of his own work to the party... Myra's banquet of original and sumptuous recipes speaks to the poet in all of us.

ROZANNE GOLD

THE HUFFINGTON POST

{What sets this book apart is the added literary component of culinary poetry on food, cooking and eating, making it my pick as the best cookbook of the summer.

DIAN ROSEEN WORTHINGTON

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

{Cooking with the Muse, by Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massamilla (Tupelo Press) shows that inspiration can stoke anywhere, and when it happens in the kitchen, our taste buds reap all of the benefits... This book is truly a feast for all the senses and will inspire you, just as the muses do, to cook up palate-pleasing creations. Bon appetit!

BARBARA BELLESI

BELLA MAGAZINE, THE BEAUTY ISSUE, TOP FIVE TITLES

{"Get good ingredients", and French chef might say, and try not to screw them up. The hear of this big, beautiful book beats with that philosophy, but also this: respect the food, and please, slow down and don't forget to read some poetry along the way.

JOSH COOK

FORWARD REVIEWS MAGAZINE

{Prepare your appetites! This glorious compendium of recipes, food lore, poetry, and history offers savory layers of enjoyment in every category - it's a delicious feast of love.

NAOMI SHAHIB NYE

POET AND NOVELIST

{[A] culinary-reader of delights nested together much like a matryoshka doll. With hundreds of recipes, poetic prose pieces, cooking and poetry notes, and lavish illustrations, this literary-cookbook defies simple classification. Authors Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla offer a lap-filling volume that could be criticized for overreach if it weren’t such a fascinating genre-blending, seasonally-framed journey through history and culture.

SUSAN THURSTON

LOS ANGELES REVIEW

{When writing a cookbook, one of the challenges is to curate recipes that will be universally appealing. The authors have more than met expectations in this regard. They take their inspiration from cuisine that hails from around the world, as well as dishes that epitomize Americana. The recipes are approachable for novice cooks and avid chefs alike. Perhaps even more impressive are the irresistible poems and passages. They make it all but impossible to thumb through quickly in search of a recipe, as one’s eye is instantly drawn to the texts. This well-crafted cookbook would make an enviable addition to any kitchen.

JACQUELYN GILCHRIST

THE US REVIEW OF BOOKS, RECOMMENDED REVIEW

{The table of contents of Cooking with the Muse reads like poetry…. These are words that roll gently around the tastebuds, as well as the imagination. The authors freely intersperse recipes with historical and artistic references, lore and verse to inspire your culinary liaison. The richness of the text ensures the recipes will nourish soul as well as body in this love affair between food and literature.

WHOLELIFE MAGAZINE