Corinna Hasofferett ("hasofferett" means "woman writer" in Hebrew) is a fascinating, thoughtful, even playful Israeli writer of Hebrew literary fiction and nonfiction. Born in Romania, she has lived through more than most of us can even imagine, yet her humanity seems untarnished. Her work is translated on her site into Dutch, Romanian, French, Arabic and English. Her website offers an absorbing selection of her writing and philosophy.

Here is a bit of her bio:

a recipient of the Yaddo and Ledig writer-in-residency fellowships and many other grants and awards. Her work has been published in such literary magazines and e-zines as Partisan Review, International Quarterly, Pen Israel Anthology, Archipelago, Jacket, Patchword, Masthead, etc. Two of her recent books, 'Once She Was a Child' and 'Sodot' ('A Minyan of Lovers') have been translated into English and are available for publication.

Life

Born in the regional town of Tecuci, Romania.
Short childhood (three-four years).

Tile-roofs, spotted hens in the courtyard. A pleasure to discover an egg among the flowers, to punch a tiny hole and drink it on the spot, warm and fresh, and the egg-yolk soft. Once She Was A Child

That's how they are preserved in memory. I sit in my house, outside the light of day and the light of night are mixed up as cards are shuffled, and I don't notice it. I get up from the table only to feed Ronen, go to sleep so I can return from the dream and record every single word. A few people, a moment before oblivion covered them with a soft cape, gave me a saying as you give a fire that doesn't go out. If I hadn't come, would they have remained in the transparent air-ship of each one of them, and not crumbled away. Land of Mulberry and Cherries.

1941 Romania, as Germany's ally, adopts the Nazi Race Laws. Father taken to slave labor. Grandfather taken as hostage, dies.

Unlike professor Ember, I considered my father's deed an important one, a sort of "Here I am" call which in order to respond to a person comes into the world. Now I know that I was following my father in order to find the call for which I myself am here. My father did with all his might, and all his might was in words alone... Another Story

Our uncles, twenty, twenty-five years old, would come in in the evenings and dance ballroom dances with us, when we were three, four, five. Then they took them, and our father, all the Jewish men, to slave hard labor. They put them to work by the railway tracks. The German soldiers would pass by on the trains and shoot for fun, at them and at the Romanian guards. My uncle says that one of the prisoners would always lie with his ear on the tracks to hear if a train was approaching, so they could hide from the Germans in time, they and their guards. Once She Was A Child

12/47 Illegal Alyah on Pan Crescent, a small ship built to hold 450 people, yet crowded with 7,500 Holocaust survivors.

7/48 Legal Alyah to the newly founded Israel State.

page 1 | 2