Description

With At the End of Sleep, an anthology selected from the past decade of Israeli poet Tal Nitzán's work, one of Hebrew poetry's most powerful and acclaimed contemporary voices is finally given her English-language due. Reaching beyond lyricism for its own sake with her lucid, sharp, and occasionally ferocious verse, Nitzán illuminates sexuality and struggle, protests the abuse of power, and plumbs the depths of the Israeli condition.

Reviews

"Tal Nitzán's poetry thrills me with its double nature, at once passionate and sardonic. It's a pleasure to read a book of translations that have formal grace in English. It's the formal grace that enables a dual voice, compassionate and harsh, capable of being topical and inward, heartfelt and ironic."

—Robert Pinsky

"Tal Nitzán has emerged as one of the most salient and powerful voices of Hebrew poetry in the last decade. Her work is distinguished by a lucid style coupled with a rare ability to condense and express feeling in a wide array of themes, ranging from the intimate and biographical to broad moral, social and political concerns, all presented with a fine poetic musicality never indulging in mere ornamentation."

—Moshe Ron

"(Tal Nitzán's) contribution to Hebrew culture is priceless. Her poetry, a display of poetic renewal with fierce expression and passionate emotion, creates a universe shaped as a home, a bond or a family, in which a single verse may warn against the dangers and evils of human existence. In this breathing poetry Nitzán merges the personal with the political and the aesthetic with the ethic."

—Jury of the Prime Minister Levi Eshkol Creation Prize for Hebrew writers, 2010

About the Author

The recipient of numerous awards, including the Women Writers' Prize, the Culture Minister's Prize for Beginning Poets, and the Prime Minister's Prize for Writers, Tal Nitzán is a poet, editor, and translator of Hispanic literature. She has edited three anthologies and published six poetry books, including Doméstica (2002), An Ordinary Evening (2006), Café Soleil Bleu (2007), The First to Forget(2009), and Look at the Same Cloud Twice (2012). Her poetry has been translated into over twenty languages and appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines such as Modern Poetry in Translation, Habitus, Zeek, and Bridges. Her debut novel will be published in the summer of 2014. Nitzán has resided in Buenos Aires, Bogotá, and New York, and currently lives in Tel Aviv. Find out more on her website.