Bejerano, Maya 1949–

PERSONAL: Born 1949, in Kibbutz Elon, Israel. Education: Bar Ilan University, B.A.; Hebrew University, M.A.

ADDRESSES: Home—Tel Aviv, Israel. Agent—c/o Poetry International Web Foundation, Eendrachtsplein 4, 3012 LA Rotterdam, Netherlands.

CAREER: Poet. Consultant to Tel Aviv, Israel, municipal library.

AWARDS, HONORS: Bernstein prize for poetry; Bialik prize for poetry and fiction; several other poetry prizes.

WRITINGS:

POETRY

Bat ya'anah; 'Ibud netunim (main title means "Ostrich"), 'Akhshav (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1978.

ha-Hom veha-kor: 'ibude netunim ve-shirim aherim, 1977–1980, Yerushalayim (main title means "Heat and the Cold"), Alef (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1981.

'Ibud netunim 52: (shishah ma'amarim u-ma'amar 'al mosad) (main title means "Data Processing 52"), Alef (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1983.

Shirat ha-tsiporim: ('a. n. O) 1978–1984 (main title means "Song of the Birds"), 'Akhshav (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1985.

Kol: shirim, 1981–1986 (main title means "Voice"), ha-Kibuts ha-meu'had (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1987.

Retsef ha-shirim: 1972–1986 (title means "Selected Poems: 1972–1986"), 'Am 'oved (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1987.

Livyatan: shirim (main title means "Whale"), ha-Kibuts ha-me-uhad (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1990.

ha-'Simlah ha-kehula ve-sokhen ha-bituah (title means "The Blue Dress and the Insurance Agent"), Keter (Jerusalem, Israel), 1992.

Mizmore Iyov (title means "The Hymns of Job"), ha-Kibuts ha-me'uhad (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1993.

Anaseh la-ga'at be-tabur bitni, 1992–1997 (title means "Trying to Touch My Belly-Button"), ha-Kibuts hame-uhad (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1997.

Dorse lailah (title means "Nocturnal Birds of Prey"), D. Di-Nur (Tel Aviv, Israel), 2000.

ha-Yofi hu ka-as: shirim, 1994–2000 (title means "Beauty Is Rage: Poems, 1994–2000"), ha-Kibuts ha-me'uhad (Tel Aviv, Israel), 2001.

Frequencies (Tedarim) (collected poems), ha-Kibuts hame'uhad (Tel Aviv, Israel), 2005.

Also author of poetry collection Di'alog: mivhar shirim 1970–1990, Sifre 'iton 77 be-siyu'a Hit'ahdut agudot ha-sofrim bi-medinat Yi'sra'el (Israel).

SIDELIGHTS: One of the most prominent Israeli women poets of her generation, Maya Bejerano is particularly known for creating verses that are preoccupied with the limits of language and sensation. Unlike much modern Israeli poetry, which is "reflective, ironic and mildly self-absorbed," according to Gabriel Levin in Modern Hebrew Literature, "Maya Bejerano's poems take a strikingly different course." Seneca Review contributor Yael S. Feldman noted that some people consider Bejerano to be the literary heir to Yona Wallach's "obverse voice of Israeli femaleness." Feldman asserted, however, that "Bejerano has carved for herself a poetic voice that is all her own." Using the poet's collection Mizmore Iyov as an example, Feldman wrote that hers is a "voice of a poet beyond time and place, echoing hoary images of universal myth, touching to the quick humanity with all its grandeur and pathos, illusion and delusion."

In Women of the Word: Jewish Women and Jewish Writing, Miri Kubovy explained that in her verses Bejerano addresses "such eternal problems as the relationship between consciousness and the observed world, ultimately inquiring whether human consciousness can ever comprehend the world and discern reality and truth. Bejerano's poetry illuminates these ancient questions, together with the question of language itself, in an original way." Other issues Bejerano addresses, wrote Kubovy, include "political injustice, representation, language, and media in the framework of Israeli existence today."

Bejerano told CA: "There is no book of mine that is a favorite. All of them are important and I feel close to every one."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Baskin, Judith R., Women of the Word: Jewish Women and Jewish Writing, Wayne State University Press (Detroit, MI), 1994, pp. 343-366.

PERIODICALS

Modern Hebrew Literature, spring-summer, 1982, Gabriel Levin "New Voices in Poetry," pp. 48-49; fall-winter, 1995, Nurit Gurtz, "The Book and the Film: A Case Study of He Walked through the Fields," pp. 22-26.

Seneca Review, spring, 1997, Yael S. Feldman, "The Ability to Speak Entirely New Phrases," pp. 36-82.