Yaara Ben-David is an Israeli poet, collage artist, and literary critique.
She has published poetry books and non-fiction books of essays and literary reviews.
Her work has received much critical acclaim and has been awarded with literary awards such as Israel’s Prime Minister Prize for Creative Work, the Tchernichovsky Prize of the Hebrew Writers Association in Israel and an honorable mention in the Brenner Prize of the Hebrew Writers Association, among others.
Yaara Ben-David is known not only for her poetry but also for her work as a multi- disciplinary artist combining poetry, collage art and singing.
Her work has touched the hearts of many and her poems have been translated into English, French, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Slovenian and Hungarian. Dozens of Yaara’s poems have been set to music by well-known Israeli composers and performed by renowned Israeli singers.
Yaara Ben-David holds a B.A. in Hebrew Literature and Philosophy from Tel Aviv University and an M.A. in Comparative Literature from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Poetic Career
Ben-David’s first poetry book appeared in the newspaper Hapoel Hatzair and in the Hebrew publication Eked LeShira in the late nineteen sixties. Since then, her poems have been published in most literary publications in Israel. Night Dialing (Hiyug Leyli, in Hebrew), her first book of poems in Hebrew, was originally printed in Israel in 1982 by Eked Publishing House and has received wide-acclaim from critics and readers in Israel. In addition, Ben-David is a literary critique and has published two books of essays on literary works from Israel and the world.
Prof. Nitza Ben-Dov has acknowledged Yaara Ben-David’s poetry as “fresh, original and complex” in an article that appeared in the distinguished Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz In 2015. The poetry book Fragile Balance has been described as “one of the best Israeli poetry books in the last year” by the literary critique Adina Mor-Haim. In 2016, Fragile Balance has been awarded an honorable mention in the highly regarded Brenner prize.