Erri De Luca, one of Europe’s most acclaimed writers, will be among the international guests at the International Writers Festival at Mishkenot Sha’ananim in Jerusalem, which will take place from May 25-28.
The festival, held with the support of the Jerusalem Foundation, will bring together prize-winning writers from around the world with leading Israeli authors, poets, journalists, and artists.
In addition to De Luca, other international guests include Nell Zink, Joseph Finder, Eva Illouz, Dara Horn, Steve J. Zipperstein, Benjamin Resnick, and Marcelo Birmajer.
De Luca, who was born in Naples and is known both as a novelist and poet, will appear in a program called “From Naples to Jerusalem.” He will speak with Prof. Uri S. Cohen about the literary and cultural climate in contemporary Italy, his literary works, and a new book of his that will soon be published in Hebrew.
De Luca is also known for his deep engagement with biblical Hebrew and Jewish texts. The festival describes him as a writer who is “not only a formative novelist and poet, but also a social activist, a speaker of Yiddish and ancient Hebrew, who translated the Bible in a way unlike anyone else.”
In a statement about his decision to come to Israel for the festival, De Luca said: “In the past, as a guest in Israel, I felt the deep noise of a conflict in formation, the suspended danger to the lives of civilians. My impression today is that Israel is facing a war that may possibly be the last... I am coming to share this moment with the Israeli public – and to speak in it about all the other matters, because literature is all the other matters.”
Julia Fermentto-Tzaisler, the festival and artistic director of the International Writers Festival, said that putting together this year’s guest list was particularly challenging.
“The search for guests for this year’s festival was not simple, to say the least, and included rejections and cancellations,” she said. “Israel’s status in the world continues to affect the literary world as well, which we still hope will remain independent and free of political pressures and influences, out of a belief that literature has no borders and must be available to all.”
She said that, despite these difficulties, several writers “found the courage” to come to Israel and engage with Israeli culture and praised De Luca as “one of Italy’s leading writers, who connected himself to Jewish heritage through language.”
She added that the festival will examine “the rapidly changing world, the place of Israel and Diaspora Jewry within it, and whether, through literature, there is a human core that can bridge between us.”
The festival will close with an event honoring former hostage Eli Sharabi, who will speak with interview-show host and journalist Roni Kuban about his book, Hostage. The conversation will focus on how he has turned his personal trauma into a memoir that has touched people around the world. President Isaac Herzog, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon, and Jerusalem Foundation President Arik Grebelsky will deliver opening remarks.
Fermentto-Tzaisler noted that in previous years, the festival took place under the shadow of the October 7 massacre and the war that followed. This year, she said, Sharabi’s participation in the opening event will mark this milestone “as a symbol of hope and of engraving testimony through the written word.”
Grebelsky said the festival continues to help define Jerusalem as a city of culture and dialogue.
“The International Writers Festival at Mishkenot Sha’ananim continues to shape Jerusalem as a living space of creation and of encounter between cultures,” he said. “Especially in a period of security tension, the meaning of culture is sharpened not only as a luxury but as an essential space for discourse, inspiration, and connection between people.”
He added that the Jerusalem Foundation “is proud to take part in an initiative that empowers the continuing power of the written word, especially in complex times.”
Other International Writers Festival highlights
Among the festival’s other highlights will be a talk by Dara Horn, the novelist and essayist who wrote People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present.
There will be a talk between American thriller writer Joseph Finder, a former CIA officer, and Israeli author and critic Yiftach Reicher Atir, who writes under the pen name Jonatan de Shalit and is a former Mossad officer. They will discuss writing in an era of global instability and the thin line between reality and fiction.
Nell Zink, an American novelist who spent years living in Berlin, will speak with journalist and musician Sharon Kantor about contemporary American writing and her novel Sister Europe. Eva Illouz, the Israeli-French sociologist, will speak with author Zeruya Shalev about her new book, The Civilization of Emotions.
Benjamin Resnick, a New York rabbi whose debut novel imagines a world in which Israel and Jewish communities around the world suddenly disappear, will discuss Jewish storytelling in the present moment with educator and author Rabbi Mishael Zion. Historian Steve Zipperstein will appear in two conversations, one about his book Pogrom, on the Kishinev pogrom, and another about his biography of Philip Roth. Marcelo Birmajer, the Jewish-Argentine writer and journalist, will discuss his writing, his relationship with Israel, and the impact of October 7.
The festival will also include a tribute to poet Dan Pagis marking 40 years since his death, a musical evening devoted to poets’ songs, children’s events, and an international photography exhibition from the Doron Sabag Collection.
For more information, go to the festival website at https://fest.mishkenot.org.il/en/home/a/main/