Noa Shakargy

The first poem, LOVE, promises much and doesn’t promise anything. On the one hand, its title arouses suspicion: what can a poet taking her first steps with the publication of her first book have to say that hasn’t already been said? At the same time, the suspicious title is also intriguing. A poem that focusses on love depicts “human missives, bottled” and two men who spend their nights apart. The two are river guards whose posts are distant from each other and other people – “migrating souls parted from their families”, the poet says – “they step toward the water to whisk away the distance but/ in vain, the river’s course is set.” This opening poem is short and on the mark, like the entire short book, large in the truth it contains.

Shakargy’s Hotemit Home/Heat Signature is the recipient of the Israeli Minister of Culture Award for a debut book (2016), and her work has been awarded the Rachel Negev Prize (2013) and the Harry Harshon Prize granted by Hebrew University (2013). She is co-founder of the College of Literary Arts, a two-year post-secondary creative writing program in Jerusalem, and co-editor of the literary magazine Nanopoetica, which features short form poetry and prose. She has co-edited two anthologies: Mekhiat Kapayim/Applause (Poetry Place, 2013) for protest poetry, and Kirvat Makom/Close to God (Yedioth Books, 2011), a selection of prayer poems,

The poet is a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Communication and Journalism at Hebrew University; her research deals with literature in the Internet age. She was born in and lives in Jerusalem, the granddaughter of immigrants to Israel from Bagdad, and a descendant of the 19th century Torah scholar, Hakham Abdallah (Ovadia) Somekh. LINKS

in Hebrew
A poem set to music
Additional poems