YONIT NAAMAN
If a Heart Falls

״[Naaman’s poetry] possesses its own language and idioms, which are so lacking in her contemporaries. As a poet, she also demonstrates control over diverse registers rather than a horribly flat, one-dimensional language.״ – Ran Yagil, Haaretz

״Naaman writes sharp social poetry mixed with a lot of humor, an uncommon ingredient in the literary sphere.״ – Elad Bar-Noy, Yedioth Aharonoth

A clear and direct call for political emancipation. – Shoey Raz

AWARDS

Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works (2019)

THE BOOK

Accompanied by Khen Shish’s evocative art, Yonit Naaman’s poetry explores the various entanglements into which her womanhood leads her: experiences of political entrapment, a visceral yearning for motherhood, and the unruliness of fantasy. 

February 2018 | 92 Pp. |  ISBN 978.965.7764.05.3 

As If Gauguin Came for a Visit

You are brown and I am white
the boy says to me
and I hear
the world separate
into good guys and bad guys
the words, like a sniper
flatten me to the ground
and he is already moving away
ahead of me
and onward
You are brown and I am white
the boy celebrates his victory

Before I find the time for education
a Tahitian smile freezes on my face
why did color blindness pass him over
and how can he be so young
and already know
the entire doctrine

THE AUTHOR

Yonit Naaman is an Israeli poet, essayist, editor, and literary and cultural scholar. She is the winner of the Haim Gouri Prize for Hebrew Poetry (2022). Her first poetry book Pining for the Treetops was published in 2015. If a Heart Falls is her second book.