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This week on Writers and Company, host Eleanor Wachtel talks with one of Israel's finest writers and most outspoken peace activists, David Grossman. His latest work is an exploration of the myth of Samson - the modern ramifications of the biblical strongman.

This week on Writers & Company - When Private Lives Go Public: a panel. From Israel and Montréal, Edeet Ravel, from South Africa and England, Justin Cartwright and Gillian Slovo, and from South Africa, Njabulo Ndebele. They talk with host Eleanor Wachtel about where the personal meets the political in their writing.

INTERVIEW: Israeli novelist and essayist, Amos Oz. discusses life in Israel, and fiction, politics, and peace in the Middle East. READING: Oz reads from his latest novel To Know a Woman (La-daʻat ishah) (1991, Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch). INTERVIEW: French filmmaker Diane Kurys discusses making art out of autobiography.

This week on Writers & Company, Eleanor Wachtel speaks with one of Israel's most celebrated and outspoken writers, Amos Oz. He has rooted his writing in the troubled history of his homeland. Newsweek writes of him: " Eloquent, humane, even religious in the deepest sense, [Oz] emerges as a kind of Zionist Orwell: a complex man obsessed with simple decency and determined above all to tell the truth, regardless of whom it offends."

Eleanor speaks with Arab-Israeli novelist and essayist Sayed Kashua about his new book, Native: Dispatches from an Israeli-Palestinian Life. It's a humorous, and at times painful collection of anecdotes about life as an Israeli-Palestinian.

Rutu Modan's comics have appeared in magazines and periodicals around the world, and her full-length graphic novels--inspired by real events and family history--have won major awards. Her latest book, Tunnels, is a witty, political, adventure about an archaeological dig in the West Bank. It features rivalries and conflicts that mirror the complexity of contemporary Israeli life. *Note: The audio for this episode was recorded during the Covid-19 lockdown and contains occasional low-level…

A conversation with one of Israel's finest writers and most outspoken peace activists, David Grossman. His work goes straight to the heart - whether it's fiction, or his latest book of essays, Writing in the Dark. Writing in the Dark is published by Farrar Straus & Giroux.

A.B. Yehoshua is one of Israel's most prominent and influential novelists. In books like Mr. Mani and Friendly Fire, he explores historical and current tensions in Israeli society. On Sunday, he joins host Eleanor Wachtel for a discussion about some of the topics he's compelled to include- and avoid- in his works. Don't miss that conversation on Writers & Company, Sunday afternoon.

This week, Eleanor Wachtel speaks with the popular Israeli novelist, children's book author, and political commentator, Meir Shalev. His book, A Pigeon and a Boy, is a bestseller in America and a prize-winner in Israel. A Pigeon and a Boy is published by Schocken Books.

Etgar Keret is hailed as the voice of young Israel and one of its most radical and extraordinary writers. He's known internationally for his short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for film and television. His film, Jellyfish, won the 2007 Palme D'or prize at Cannes. Eleanor Wachtel spoke with Etgar Keret, via video conference from Tel Aviv, at the Jewish Book Festival in Vancouver.

A.B. Yehoshua's roots go back five generations in Jerusalem. He is one of Israel's foremost novelists and an astute observer of Israeli life. In conversation with Eleanor Wachtel, he discusses his provocative new novel, The Liberated Bride - begun in the optimism of the Oslo Accord and finished during the second Intifada.

Interview with Israeli author and Holocaust survivor Aharon Apelfeld. In more than a dozen internationally acclaimed novels he evokes the sensibility of middle Europe before and after the Nazis. Apelfeld is like Elie Wiesel crossed with Kafka.

Eleanor speaks with Israel's number one poet, Yehuda Amichai. His own career as a poet parallels the life of his country. Part II: From Sri Lanka and London, Romesh Gunesekera. His Booker short-listed novel Reef is an evocative bittersweet tale of his war-torn country.

WRITING A NATION: ISRAEL AT 50. Episode 1 of a 5-part series on the Authors of Israel, as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. Part I: Eleanor Wachtel interviews Israeli author Meir Shalev, who discusses the sometimes oppressive weight of history in the Holy Land, the life of the Zionists who first established Israel, and the self-mythologizing aspects of the country's settlers. Part II: Eleanor interviews S. Izhar, the grand old man of Israeli literature, who discusses the novel he wrote in…

WRITING A NATION - ISRAEL AT 50 - Episode 2 of a 5-part series on the Authors of Israel, as that country celebrates its 50th anniversary. Part I: Eleanor Wachtel interviews Israeli author Amos Elon, who discusses the messianic and idealistic motives of the Zionist settlers who came to Israel in 1948, the ideas of Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, the defining characteristics of Israeli society, a hybrid culture made up of Jews from over 100 countries, and how Israel has two capitals…