Mounir, Dana und das Mädchen

Amit's collection weaves together stories of characters often relegated to the margins of Israeli society: Palestinians, queers, single mothers, and Mizrahi women. Amit's quiet, empathetic prose transforms the "other" into the intimate, breaking down the walls between communities. The book received acclaim in Israel, amongst others, from the late Amos Oz, who described it: "Vigorously written, with a delicate and precise hand and a rare combination of wit and compassion." It also won the Israeli Ministry of Culture Prize for Debut Authors in 2016.

Author Tamar Raphael will read from the book, giving voice to Amit's delicate yet vigorous storytelling. Tomer Dotan Dreyfus will offer a political perspective, examining the role of Palestinian characters in Hebrew literature and the place of Arabic in Hebrew texts—a conversation particularly resonant in today's context. Hosted by author Kevin Junk in conversation with Hila Amit about her political-social literature. For German audiences, this collection offers rare insight into aspects of Israeli society seldom discussed abroad—stories of forbidden love, cultural crossings, and the courage to embrace difference.

Hila Amit’s writing appeared in Lilith, Jalta, Emrys Journal, The Washington Square Review, The Sycamore Review, Granta, and several prominent Israeli literary magazines. Her short story collection, Moving on From Bliss (2016), was awarded the Israeli Ministry of Culture Prize for Debut Authors. Her non-fiction book, A Queer Way Out – The Politics of Queer Emigration from Israel (SUNY Press, 2018), was awarded the AMES Book Award for 2019. In 2020, she published the queer feminist Hebrew learning book Hebrew for All (Münster: edition assemblage). Her novel, The Town Below, was published in Hebrew (Tel Aviv: Am-Oved) in 2022. She is a recipient of fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, The Vermont Studio Center, The Bogliasco Foundation, Ragdale, and was a 2025 Thomas Mann House fellow. She is a member of Die Sammlung, a collective of Jewish writers in Berlin.

Kevin Junk (he/they), born in 1989, lives in Berlin as a writer, editor and freelance author. He studied Japanese studies and literature in Trier, Berlin and Kyoto. In 2022, he received a research grant from the Berlin Senate.

Novels ‘Fromme Wölfe’ (2021) and ‘Saturns Sommer’ (2023)
poetry collection ‘RE: re: AW: Liebe’ (2022)  In his texts, he deals with contemporary culture, identity and healing processes. As an editor, he initiated ‘Parabolis Virtualis. Neue, queere Lyrik’ (Querverlag), the first queer poetry anthology series in the German-speaking world. His texts have appeared in Glitter, Allmende and Fixpoetry, among others.

Tamar Raphael is an Israeli writer based in Berlin. Her debut novel, There Were Two with Nothing to Do (2024), received rave reviews and an honorable mention from the Brener Award for debut fiction. Her poetry collection, Receding Songs (2021), received the Ministry of Culture Award for Young Poets and her poems and short stories have appeared in a range of literary magazines and journals. She is a MacDowell fellow and a member of Die Sammlung - a collective for Jewish writers in Berlin.

Tomer Dotan-Dreyfus, born in 1987, is an author, poet and translator. He studied Comparative Literature and Philosophy in BA and MA at the Free University of Berlin, as well as at the University of Vienna and Paris VIII. His first book was published in 2022 and was a literary analysis of the letter O in various works. His debut novel Birobidschan was published in 2023 and was nominated for the German Book Prize in the same year. In 2025 he published his essayistic nonfiction Keinheimisch. He writes as a freelance author for various newspapers, including Freitag, taz, and Süddeutsche Zeitung.