Avner Shats ( he, אבנר שץ; born 1959) is an Israeli author and poet. Born in

Kiryat Yam Kiryat Yam ( he, קִרְיַת יָם, lit. ''Sea Town'') is a city in the Haifa Bay district of Israel, north of Haifa. One of a group of Haifa suburbs known as the Krayot, it is located on the Mediterranean coast, between Kiryat Haim and the T ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, he now lives in

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

. Having attended the naval academy in Acre as a boy, Shats commanded a swift boat on the Dead Sea before going to work for a shipping company. He is held to be an expert on maritime lore in general and the brief, checkered history of seafaring Israel in particular. He is regarded as Israel's token

postmodernist Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of modern ...

, having first come to public attention in 1989 with an anonymous short story "Figs" that had the judges of the first Haaretz short story competition convinced that its author was a young

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

woman. A collection of stories "Ma'agalim Mudpasim" (Printed Circuits) followed. The novel "Lashut el Ha-Shkiʹah" (Sailing to the Sunset) received the 1997 Schweipert Prize, bestowed by the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

. That novel's main character, Elad Manor, was accepted to the prestigious Mishkenot Sha'ananim Poetry Workshop, also in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. In 2000 Shats was a fellow of the Oxford Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, associated with

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

, where he began his second, still unfinished novel, "42." The children's story "Hila ve Dag Ha-Gerev" (Hila and the Sockfish) appeared in 2005. A collection of short stories by Shats was published in November 2016 by Locus Publishin

Private Novelist
by

Nell Zink Helen "Nell" Louise Zink (born 1964) is an American writer living in Germany. After being a long term penpal of Avner Shats, she came to prominence in her fifties with the help of Jonathan Franzen and her novel, ''Mislaid'', was longlisted for t ...

contains two novellas titled "Sailing Towards the Sunset by Avner Shats" and "European Story for Avner Shats".

References

External links

Avner Shats home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shats, Avner Israeli novelists Israeli poets People from Haifa 1959 births Living people