Yossi Avni-Levy (born 25 May 1962) is an Israeli writer and diplomat. He has served in various positions in Israeli

embassies A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

in Berlin,

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

, Belgrade, and

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. He is Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania. From 2011 until 2016, he was Ambassador to Serbia. Avni-Levy is the author of the books ''Garden of the dead trees'', ''Four sons'', ''Auntie Farhuma wasn't a whore after all'', ''A man without shadow'' and ''Ode of the Sins''. He has been awarded with the Prime Minister's Prize for Literature.

Biography

Avni-Levy was born 25 May 1962, to an Afghan Jewish father and an

Iranian Jewish Persian Jews or Iranian Jews ( fa, یهودیان ایرانی, ''yahudiān-e-Irāni''; he, יהודים פרסים ''Yəhūdīm Parsīm'') are the descendants of Jews who were historically associated with the Persian Empire, whose successor s ...

mother. He graduated with honors from

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 ...

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

in history of the Middle East and Arabic in 1983, earning a bachelor of laws (LLB) degree from the Faculty of Law in 1991. Avni-Levy's writing is personal and poetic and is noteworthy for its intimacy. The extended periods he has spent outside Israel on diplomatic postings are reflected in his works. He published short stories under the pen name Yossi Avni in the literary supplements to ''Maariv'' and ''Haaretz''. He won first prize in Hebrew University's annual contest in 1988, first prize in a contest sponsored by "At (You)" in 1991, and third prize in the Haaretz short story contest for his story "Pains" in 1991. His travelogue, "Journey," was included in the first issue of the journal ''Rechov'' (Street). Several of his stories were included in anthologies in German, Italian, and English. Avni has also published book reviews (''Haaretz'', ''Yedioth Aharonoth'') and literary reports ("Cappuccino in Three Crosses Square," ''Haaretz literary and cultural supplement'', January 2007). Avni's story "Journey" was also included in the 1998 collection ''50 Years, 50 Stories : a selection of short stories'' edited by Zisi Satuy of Yidioth Aharonoth. His story "Nice Words of Farewell" was included in the collection ''Murder Close to Home : stories about murders of Israelis'' edited by Dorit Zilberman and Aviva Gefen and published by Keter in 2001. He was invited by the Polish Literature Association to give lectures in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

(

, Krakow,

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...

) in September 2007 and gave lectures on his writing at Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Brandeis universities in the United States in April 2008. He is openly gay.

Writings

* 1995: ''The Garden of Dead Trees'' (Heb. ''Gan Ha-Etzim Ha-Metim''), published in German, by

Suhrkamp Verlag Suhrkamp Verlag is a German publishing house, established in 1950 and generally acknowledged as one of the leading European publishers of fine literature. Its roots go back to the "arianized" part of the S. Fischer Verlag. In January 2010 the ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

and by Männerschwarm Verlag/

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. * 1998: ''Four Sons'' (Heb. ''Arba'a Banim'') * 2003: ''Auntie Farhuma wasn't a whore, after all'' (Heb. ''Doda Farhuma Lo Haita Zona''), published in Polish Sic!

publishing house Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

. * 2007: ''A man without shadow'' (Heb. ''Ish Lelo Tzel''), published in Serbian by Narodna biblioteka Srbije. * 2010: ''Ode of the Sins'' (Heb. ''Shira HaHataim'')

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Avni-Levy, Yossi 1962 births Israeli Mizrahi Jews Jewish novelists Gay diplomats LGBT writers from Israel Living people Israeli male short story writers Israeli short story writers Israeli people of Iranian-Jewish descent Israeli people of Afghan-Jewish descent Afghan Jews Gay writers LGBT Jews Meretz politicians Ambassadors of Israel to Lithuania Ambassadors of Israel to Serbia