Erez Biton

Erez Biton (born 1942 in Oran, Algeria) is an Israeli poet of Moroccan descent. He is the 2015 recipient of the Israel Prize for Hebrew Literature and Poetry, among other literary awards. Oran in North Africa, he immigrated to Israel in 1948 with his family via France. At the age of 10, he lost his vision and his left hand to a stray hand grenade that he found. The following year he went to school at Jerusalem's Institute for the Blind. He earned a B.A. in social work from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and an M.A. in psychology at Bar-Ilan University. Career Following his studies, Biton worked as a social worker in Ashkelon for seven years and as a psychologist in an outlying town. He worked as a journalist and published a weekly column in the Israeli mainstream daily Maariv. His first book, Mincha Marokait (Moroccan Gift), published in 1976, established him as the founding father of Mizrahi poetry in Israel. Work Poetry Mincha Maroka'it "Moroccan Gift," Eked, 1976 Sefer Hana'Na "The Book of Mint," Eked, 1979 Tsipor being Yabashot "Intercontinental Bird", 1990 Timbisert, Tsipor Maroka'it , "Timbisert, a Moroccan Bird", Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2009 Nofim Khavushei Einayim "Blindfolded Landscapes", Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2013 Drama Edit Sulika "Soulika", Snir, 2005 Awards Edit (2015) Biton was awarded the Israel Prize for Literature, the first Mizrahi Jew to receive it. The prize committee described his poems as being "the epitome of courageous dealings, sensitive and deep with a wide range of personal and collective experiences centered around the pain of migration, planting roots in the country, and the reestablishment of the Mizrahi identity as an integral part of the overall Israeli portrait." (2014) Bialik Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2014) Yehuda Amichai Prize (1988) Prime Minister's Prize (1982) Miriam Talpir Prize