Form D.M. Doust
Web T. Jonsson
KURRENTS
Yitzhak Laor, born in Palestine, in 1948, currently lives in Tel Aviv. He earned his BA, MA and PhD degrees in theater and literature from Tel Aviv University.
Laor is involved in several realms of art: poetry, prose, essayistic and dramatic writing. He regularly publishes literary reviews in the Hebrew daily Ha'aretz.
In 1972 he was jailed for refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories. His leftist opinions, expressed in his works, continually nettled Israel's mainstream establishment. Some poems he published during the beginning of the first Lebanon war aroused many nasty responses. His play Ephraim Returns to the Army, was banned in 1985 by Israeli censorship, but on appeal it was approved (1987) for performance by Israel's High Court of Justice in a case that has become a constitutional precedent.
Since 1993 Laor's work concentrated on his three major novels, yet he did published also several books of poetry. Since 2005 Laor is the editor (and the founder) of Mita'am, a Review of Literature and Radical Thought, which became through its 15 issues (so far) a major intellectual arena for non-Zionst intellectual activity (www.mitaam.co.il). His book of essays Le nouveau philosémitisme européen (La fabrique, Paris, 2007) has appeared in Italian, and due to appear in both Greek and English (Verso, March 2009, in English under the name The Myths of Liberal Zionism).
Outside the Fence (stories), Keter, 1981 (Kugel Award)
Going Away (poems), Sifriat Poalim, 1982
Only the Body Can Remember (poems), Adam, 1985
Ephraim Returns to the Army (play), Timon, 1987
Poems In the Valley of Iron (poems), Am Oved, 1990
A Night in a Foreign Hotel (poems), Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1992 (Bernstein Award)
The People, Food Fit for a King (novel), Hasifriya Hakhdasha, 1993 (the Hebrew Literature Award)
Narratives with no Natives, Essays on Israeli Literature, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1995
And Loveth Many Days (poems), Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1996
And With My Spirit, My Corpse (novel), Hasifriya Hakhdasha, 1998 (Moses Award). Published in German under the title, Steine, Gitter, Stimme, Unionsverlag
As Nothing (poems), Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1999
Early Stories, Keter, 2000
Collected Poems (1974-1992), Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2001
Things that are Better (not) Kept Silent, (Essays), Babel, 2001
Ecce Homo, (novel), Hasifyia Hakhadasha, 2002, German translation in 2005, due to appear in English, with Metropolitan Books, New York, 2009).
The City of Whale, (Poems) Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2004 (Award of Yehuda Amikhai for poetry, 2006)
Vered (stories), Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2006
Let my Son Rise (poems), Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2007
Le nouveau philosémitisme européen (essays) La fabrique, Paris, 2007 (also in in Italian, 2008; Due to appear in English and Greek in 2009)
Hanoch Levin's Theatre (theory), Hakibbutz Hameuchad (coming in 2009)