Welcome to Israeli poetry - May 2006

January 18, 2006 The poets appearing in the Israeli pages are chosen long before their poems are published online. Material is gathered about their lives, their poems are studied in order to choose the most suitable ones for international exposure, and translations are often commissioned especially for PIW. The issues most often include additional texts alongside the poems: bibliographical information and critical reviews of books as well as interviews with the writers and analyses of poems.

Just as our work – for this issue, we thought – on the poetry of Dorit Weisman and Ayman Agbaria was culminating, and Prof Nancy Coffin was already writing a commissioned article on Agbaria for these pages, preparations for the 7th International Jerusalem Poetry Festival at our sponsors’ Mishkenot Sha'ananim, went into a high gear. At a meeting with Yael Nahari, Mishkenot program director, and the festival's artistic directors, culture critic and literary scholar Ariel Hirschfeld and the poet Agi Mishol, it was decided to dedicate the next two issues to Israeli poets participating in the festival, scheduled from October 29th until November 1st. And so the material originally intended for this issue has been postponed and will appear at the end of the year, and our format now and in August will be different from that of the past.

In addition to the twelve foreign poets participating in the international festival in Jerusalem, sixteen Israeli poets will read from their work and take part in festival events. Six of them have already been featured in our pages:

Chaim Gouri, Salman Masalha, Agi Mishol, Amir Or, Ronny Someck, and Nurit Zarchi

The ten additional Israeli poets appearing at the festival whose poems have yet to appear on PIW are: Dana Amir, Israel Eliraz, Raquel Chalfi, Ramy Ditzanny, Tamir Greenberg, Hedva Harechavi, Yonadav Kaplun, Tamir Lahav-Radlmesser, Lyor Shternberg and myself, Rami Saari.

In this issue and the next one, these poets' works will be posted online but without analyses of poems, critical essays or links to other sites; each one will be represented by a short biographical text, a photo and two poems. We reserve the right to return to these poets in future issues and present them in greater depth. In addition, this issue and the next two will feature texts which deal with the festival in one way or another.

Work by veteran poets Israel Eliraz and Raquel Chalfi is accompanied here by the writing of poet and photographer Tamir Lahav-Radlmesser, and that of two young talented poets, Dana Amir and Lyor Shternberg.

You will also find an article written by the festival artistic directors which briefly describes Mishkenot Sha'ananim, its festival history and the main events planned for the fall.

Enjoy!

Essay: The 7th International Jerusalem Mishkenot Sha’ananim Poetry Festival

All prose translations on the Israeli domain are by PIW editor Lisa Katz, unless otherwise indicated.


{id="3083" title="Rami Saari"}, National Editor
{id="3083" title="Lisa Katz"}, English Language Editor


The Israeli national site is produced by {id="3098" title="Mishkenot Sha’ananim"} International Cultural Centre in Jerusalem.