Israeli writer and filmmaker to speak at the University of Richmond March 23

March 5, 2009

Israeli writer-filmmaker Etgar Keret will speak at the University of Richmond March 23 at 7 p.m. in Weinstein Hall's Brown-Alley Room as part of the English department's Writers Series.

Hailed as the voice of young Israel, Keret is inspired by his time spent in the army and often blends humor and violence, mundane and surreal. His short-story collections, such as "Missing Kissinger," "The Nimrod Flip-Out" and "The Girl on the Fridge," established his characteristic brevity—most of his stories are only three pages—and earned him the Prime Minister's Prize for Literature.

Keret's films have won the Camera d'Or Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the Israeli Ministry of Culture's Cinema Prize and the Israeli Film Academy Award. His feature, "Jellyfish," is a joint venture with his wife that illustrates the intersecting lives of ordinary residents of Tel Aviv.

Keret lives in Tel Aviv and is a lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva and Tel Aviv University.

The program is free and open to the public. For more information, call (804) 289-8287.