24 Facts About Etgar Keret

Etgar Keret is an Israeli writer known for his short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for film and television.

Etgar Keret is a third child to parents who survived the Holocaust.

Etgar Keret studied at Ohel Shem high school, and at the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Programme for Outstanding Students of Tel Aviv University.

In 1998, Etgar Keret published Kneller's Happy Campers, a collection of short stories.

Etgar Keret wrote a children's book Dad Runs Away with the Circus, illustrated by Rutu Modan.

Etgar Keret publishes some of his works on the Hebrew-language web site "Bimah Hadashah".

The prize includes a paid translation of the winning book into any language of the author's choosing, and Etgar Keret gained some attention for selecting Yiddish.

Etgar Keret has worked in Israeli television and film, including three seasons as a writer for the popular sketch show The Cameri Quintet.

Etgar Keret wrote the story for the 2001 TV movie Aball'e starring Shmil Ben Ari.

In 2010 a short feature film based on Etgar Keret's story was released.

Etgar Keret's work is frequently featured on the National Public Radio program This American Life, which has presented readings of eight of his stories.

Etgar Keret's writing style is lean, using everyday language, slang, and dialect.

Etgar Keret's work has influenced many writers of his generation, as well as bringing a renewed surge in popularity for the short story form in Israel in the second half of the 1990s.

Whilst Agnon attempts to write in Hebrew, which is obviously not his mother tongue, Etgar Keret writes authentically in his native Israeli.

When Etgar Keret says so, he means "his wife loves him very much".

Etgar Keret has received the Prime Minister's award for literature, as well as the Ministry of Culture's Cinema Prize.

The short film Malka Lev Adom, which Etgar Keret wrote and directed with Ran Tal, won an Israel Film Academy award and first place in the Munich International Festival of Film Schools.

Etgar Keret was on the jury for the 2010 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.

In 2010, Etgar Keret received the Chevalier Medallion of France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Etgar Keret has received the Charles Bronfman Prize for 2016.

Etgar Keret received the 2018 Sapir Prize for Literature for his short-story collection Takalah be-Katzeh ha-Galaksiya whose English translation, Fly Already, won the 2019 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction.

Etgar Keret's narrator is trapped in an angry masculine wistfulness which is awful to behold in its masturbatory disconnection from the world's real possibilities and pleasures.

Etgar Keret lives in Tel Aviv with his wife, Shira Geffen, and their son, Lev, born in 2006.

Etgar Keret is a lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, and at Tel Aviv University.