Editor in Chief Daniel Simon to Give Talk on the Multilingual Literatures of Israel

On Wednesday, April 2 at noon cdt, Daniel Simon will give an invited talk on the multilingual literatures of Israel on the University of Oklahoma campus. Sponsored by the university’s Schusterman Center for Judaic & Israel Studies, the event will take place in-person (Zarrow Hall 145) and online, and is free and open to the public (no advance registration required).

In his talk, Simon will ask, What do the poets Lea Goldberg (1911–1970), Jabrā Ibrāhīm Jabrā (1919–1994), and Almog Behar (b. 1978) have in common? To begin to answer that question, he will discuss how, as translators, these writers share a central preoccupation with language. In the multilingual crucible of Mandate Palestine and modern Israel, all three work against an exclusionary mindset that would subsume all other languages to Modern Hebrew. Instead, they embrace a “poetics of translation” (Lital Levy) that foregrounds linguistic catholicity and interanimation. With their biographies marked by varying stages of physical or cultural exile, these poets also serve as multilingual cultural viaducts.

An award-winning essayist, poet, and translator, Simon has served as the editor in chief of WLT at OU since 2008, where he also serves on the affiliate faculty in English, International Studies, and Judaic Studies. A Nebraska native with five books to his credit, his latest verse collection, Under a Gathering Sky, was published by SFA Press in 2024. His forthcoming anthology, Is There a World Literature?, which will commemorate WLT’s centennial, is due out from Restless Books in spring 2026. He is a member of the Academy of American Poets, the Nebraska Center for the Book, and the Norman Arts Council Roundtable.

The largest center of its kind in the Southern Plains region, the Schusterman Center for Judaic & Israel Studies is part of the Dodge Family College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Oklahoma.

Zarrow Hall is located at 700 Elm Avenue on the OU campus. To join the webinar, click here. To watch the archived video following the event, visit the Schusterman Center’s YouTube channel.