Literature

The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature (ITHL)

As a young state made up of people from very diverse cultures, Israel has a rich and rapidly evolving literary culture. The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature (ITHL) was founded in 1962 to acquaint foreign readers with the best of modern Hebrew literature. Over the years, the range of its activities has expanded far beyond translation. Concurrently, international interest in Hebrew literature has grown significantly. Among the institute’s functions, apart from its main activities to prepare and promote new Hebrew titles in translation, is the selecting of literary titles for publication in foreign languages, and publishing the annual English-language literary journal Modern Hebrew Literature. The ITHL also acts as literary agent to over 230 leading authors of adult and children’s literature.

 Visit ITHL’s Website

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Jerusalem International Book Fair

First held in 1963, the Jerusalem International Book Fair [JIBF] is a unique biennial event which draws over 1200 publishers from more than 40 countries who exhibit more than 100,000 books in different languages. The Editorial Fellowship Program, one of the JIBF’s innovations, was established in 1985 and invites a group of young promising and talented editors to attend the Fair to meet and exchange ideas with their contemporaries. This program has become one of JIBF’s strongest attractions and its members have forged professional relationships and personal friendships that have lasted through the years. One of the JIBF’s most important events is the presentation of the prestigious Jerusalem Prize to a writer whose work best expresses and promotes the idea of the ”freedom of the individual in society’’.

Photo: Shlomi Cohen

Visit the Book Fair’s website

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Mishkenot Sha’ananim

Jerusalem’s Mishkenot Sha’ananim is an international cultural and conference centre established by the Jerusalem Foundation. The Centre serves as a venue for artistic and cultural activities in the spirit of dialogue, tolerance and pluralism. Among its activities are conferences devoted to cultures of the Mediterranean region, an international poetry festival, creative writing and poetry workshops, etc. At the Centre for Ethics, which is also part of Mishkenot Sha’ananim’s activities, numerous conferences and symposiums are held on ethics-related topics.

Visit Mishkenot Sha’ananim’s website

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Mishkenot Sha’ananim – International Writers Festival

The International Writers Festival in Jerusalem contains many literary events that combine film, music and theatre as well. The festival aims at attracting a variety of audiences: scholars, students and the general public, giving them the opportunity to meet the writers for book-readings, panel discussions, writing and translation seminars and concerts, as well as films and plays based on novels. One of the main aspects of this festival is to encourage children and teenagers to read. Mishkenot Sha’ananim is holding several events in schools, together with authors and students.

More about the festival

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The Hebrew Book Week

The Hebrew Book Week is an annual event celebrating literature in Israel. Currently the Hebrew Book Week is extended to ten days, and takes place in the spring usually around the time of the Jewish festival Shavu’ot. During the week, large day-long outdoor book fairs are organized in Israel’s major cities in which publishing houses advertise and sell their products. Apart from discounts in the fair, book stores as well typically offer sales during this time, and in addition to that, a variety of literary events, such as public reading and face-to-face with authors, take place.

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Meter al Meter

The Jerusalem Poetry Festival, Meter al Meter (Hebrew for one square meter), is created by the jerusalem-based K’tovet Poetry Group and is all about admission-free events, all dealing with the many different forms of Israeli space – small, intimate, and “one meter square”. The Festival takes place in the Lev Ha’ir Quarter in the heart of Jerusalem. The participating poets read from their works and talk to audiences in local courtyards, in homes of residents, in intimate public spaces and in cafes.

Visit Meter al Meter’s website

Visit Poetry Place

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Poetry Place

The Poetry Place is a non-profit literary project based in a municipal community center, located in the center of Jerusalem. It serves as a venue for poetry readings by veteran and new Israeli poets and translators, and discussions about poetry, most often accompanied by musical performances. Combining the cultivation of an appreciation for poetry, support for disadvantaged sectors of society, and the fostering of culture in Jerusalem’s urban center, Poetry Place has a well-defined contemporary, literary-cultural agenda, which it promotes through participating in numerous literary and arts festivals, leading workshops for creative writing, and publishing critical essays on its website.

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Helicon Society

Helicon Society for the Advancement of Poetry in Israel is a non-profit organization that was jointly founded in 1990 by the poet Amir Or, Helicon’s chief editor and artistic director, and by Irit Sela. Helicon is a poetry journal, a poetry press, a training centre for young poets, a producer of poetry performances, an initiator of interactive ventures between poetry and the other arts, a promoter of communication and sharing among poets writing in the various languages of Israel – Hebrew, Arabic, English, Russian and more – and an importer of poetry from the world into Israel and an exporter of Israeli poetry to the world.

Visit Helicon’s website

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Sha’ar International Poetry Festival (SIPF)

Sha’ar is the Arabic word for “poem” and the Hebrew word for “gate”. Sha’ar International Poetry Festival has taken upon itself to open through poetry a gate to thought, to beauty and to human dialogue. The festival is an interdisciplinary poetry festival, that hosts established Israeli and guest poets, as well as young promising poets and artists. Sha’ar involves the public in the dialogue, including multi-media Arabic and Hebrew works and a wide variety of activities. Besides poetry readings a panel discussion and meetings with editors of poetry journals, the festival presents collaborations of poetry with other artistic fields: music, dance, video art, visual arts, and theatre.

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The Israeli Storytelling Festival

The Storytelling Festival created and directed by Yossi Alfi since 1993, has been held annually during the Jewish Festival Sukkot. Storytellers from Israel and abroad are gathered to tell the audience their stories, mostly about the Israeli life through a wide range of angles such as historical stories, stories about the Israel society and ethnical and cultural views. Over the years, hundreds of participants took part in the festival, including theatre people, artists, musicians, writers, poets, intellectuals, public figures and key figures in the Israeli society, all came to share their stories with the devoted audience.

Visit The Festival’s website

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Deborah Harris Agency

The Deborah Harris Agency is a Jerusalem-based literary agency founded in 1991. The agency represents worldwide publishing and dramatic rights of Israeli, Palestinian and international authors in more than thirty countries. In addition, it acts as sub-agents for numerous publishers and agencies overseas to Israeli publishing houses.

Visit Deborah Harris’s website

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Kneller Artists Agency

Established in 1996, Kneller Artists Agency is a Tel-Aviv based agency representing writers, authors, directors (film, TV and theatre), musicians and talents in Israel. The agency provides assistance with negotiations, contracts and other legal and relationship matters, between the artists and the broadcasters, theatres, publishers, production houses, advertising agencies and film funds in Israel.

Visit Kneller Artists Agency’s website

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