International Showcase of Hebrew Literature September 11-15, Tel Aviv-Jaffa
The Israeli Institute for Hebrew Literature invites you to discover the best of contemporary Israeli writing. Publishers, editors, festival directors, and literary professionals from around the world are coming to Israel to meet with Israeli authors, take part in public literary panels, and experience Hebrew literature up close.
All showcase events are open to the public, held in Hebrew with simultaneous English translation, and offer a rare opportunity for dialogue between the Israeli literary scene and the international community.
See the full schedule of events below >>
Friday | September 12
Tel Aviv Da Vinci Culture House – 14 Leonardo da Vinci St., Tel Aviv
10:00 – 11:00 The Israeli Home and the Jewish Attic: Yirmi Pinkus and Matan Hermoni
Are Israelis really in Israel? Literature reveals to us again and again that real life is always elsewhere: the legacies of an exilic past and old fantasies of Europe in the works of Yirmi Pinkus and Matan Hermoni expose the hidden attics and secret cellars that complicate – and enrich – the architecture of Israeli identity.
11:30 – 12:30
Fantasy, Horror & Sci-Fi in Hebrew: Shimon Adaf, Amir Harash and Ofir Touché Gafla
Israeli literature largely operates under the gravitational pull of realism; it is particularly interesting to look at the works of writers who most blatantly broke the etiquette of the Israeli canon, venturing into the realms of fantasy, science fiction, and modern gothic.
18:00 – 19:00 Sex in Hebrew: Nano Shabtai and Yossi Waxman
Really?? Sex in Hebrew? That must surely be a mistake in the title. Nothing in the ascetic beginnings of Hebrew literature prepared us for the boundary-breaking erotic carnival in the works of Nano Shabtai and Yossi Waxman.
Saturday | September 13
Soho House – 27 Yefet St., Jaffa
10:00 – 11:00 Emerging Voices: Oded Carmeli and Zohar Elmakias
Zohar Elmakias and Oded Carmeli belong to the younger generation of Hebrew authors. Their work, resistant to easy categorization, offers dazzling glimpses of the new directions Hebrew literature may take.
11:30 – 12:30 Creation and Biography: Michal Zamir and Anat Einhar
Michal Zamir and Anat Einhar have written works that openly draw on charged biographical material. Yet what they have produced are fully realized novels. How does the alchemical transformation occur, turning lived experience into aesthetic form? And what is the relationship between the finished work and the life that brought it into being?
Liebling House – 29 Idelson St., Tel Aviv
17:00 – 18:00 Literature and the Climate Crisis: Ofri Ilany and Nitza Lahat
How does literature respond to one of the defining discourses of our time? Can it open a window and look directly at the looming apocalypse? What tools – of fiction, essay, or other forms – are needed to confront the global disaster zone and to trace its local manifestations?
18:00 – 19:00 Restless Writing: Lea Aini in Conversation
Lea Aini is one of the most distinctive voices in Israeli literature. Over decades of uncompromising creation, repeatedly venturing into existential extremes, she has produced a corpus unlike any other. Aini will join us to discuss her work.
Sunday | September 14
Beit Ariela Library – 25 Shaul HaMelech Blvd., Tel Aviv
09:00 – 11:00 Editors Recommend
Editors and publishers from Israel’s leading houses, from long-established veterans to groundbreaking independents, will showcase the best of contemporary Hebrew literature and meet with guests in one-on-one sessions.
With: Noa Manheim (Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir), Yaara Shehori (Keter Books), Celine Assayag (Yedioth Ahronoth), Yoav Reiss (Persimmon), Tamar Peled (Locus), Oded Carmeli (Hava LeHaba), Yoav Rozan (Hakibbutz Hameuchad), Iftach Alony (Afik), Amit Rotbard (Babel), Meira Firon (Tal-May), Uriel Kon (Tesha Neshamot), Yoav Gilboa (Catharsis), and Saray Gutman and Dana Olmert (Ahuzat Bayit).
20:00 – 21:30 From Page to Stage: Actors Read Israeli Literature
Featuring Norman Issa, Dor Yardeni, and Sivan Kaynar Kissinger