The Voices Israel Group of Poets

in English

2021 Voices Anthology Launch

This year again, we had hoped to hold the launch of Volume 47 of the Voices Israel Anthology with a face-to-face event at the Netanya Stage Bar. But we all eyed the ever-fluctuating Corona situation and decided to pay it safe! So on October 3rd 2021, 33 avid members gathered via Zoom. Once again this had the advantage that several of our overseas members could join us - from the UK, Canada and as far away as the Pacific coast of the USA.

Once again, too, we welcomed two new members who joined us this year and attended the launch, though we didn't have the pleasure of hearing them read since they missed the Anthology submission period, and we didn't hold an Open Mike this year.


Of the 33 people who attended the launch,  29 (and one proxy reader) read their poems from the Anthology, to the great enjoyment of us all. 

The Anthology was sent out in late August. It’s a beautiful volume and I’ve received many compliments on its appearance and its content. The kudos for the first should go to Avril Meallem, our new designer and producer of the Anthology, and for the second – the content – to Dina Yehuda, our long-term, dedicated Chief Editor, who oversaw the entire project, right down to the initial proof-reading, as well as being one of the judges. She has once again produced a volume containing a series of quality poems arranged in a logical flow of themes. We can't express our gratefulness and admiration with a presentation via Zoom, so have sent her the next best thing - a Steimatsky gift card as a small token of our appreciation. 

Avril Meallem took over as designer and producer of the Anthology after our long-term designer Johnmichael Simon stepped down from that role last year. I can’t begin to describe how much time and effort Avril has put into the production of this anthology, including help with the proof-reading which wasn't supposed to be part of the job... and how creative and yet detail-oriented she has proved to be. The results are visible on every page. 
Heartfelt thanks also to the editorial team of David Silverman, Edit Gavriely and Yehudit Goldfarb.  They have all devoted a tremendous amount of work, giving considered attention to hundreds of poems, and they can be justly proud of the result! Thanks too, to Helen bar-Lev, for doing the final proof-read. And last but not least, to our Treasurer Chanita Millman, who not only handles the financial side of anthology orders but also mails the right number of copies to the right people, year after year - a tremendous job, especially this year when she mailed out a copy of the chapbook resulting from the Voices Israel 50th Anniversary event to all of us along with the Anthology. In this as in so many Voices activities - we couldn't do it without her!

As usual, we recorded the event on Zoom, and have uploaded the video to our new YouTube channel, started this year. Our secretary Linda has sent all our members a link to view it on YouTube and you can also view it via the link below.   Here we've put a few screenshots from the video, to give an idea of the feel of the event.

Click on any of the screenshots below to view a magnified slideshow. You can view the whole video on YouTube via this link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJTvvBy9iTg.


We look forward to seeing everyone next year at the launch of the 2022 Anthology - when hopefully we will finally be back to real meetings!

More information about the annual Anthology and how to submit poems to it is detailed under Anthology from the main menu.

Below, from left to right: Ann Bar-Dov, Donna Bechar and Malka Kelter, reading their poems at the event.