Bar Sagi was a young Israeli poet who wrote in English. Born in Rehovot in 2001, she lived from age five to eleven with her parents in the United States and English became her preferred language. Sadly, on her return to Israel she was diagnosed with bone cancer, and after putting up a courageous and protracted battle for over four years, finally succumbed in 2017 before reaching her sixteenth birthday.
During these last years, Bar wrote 25 poems which documented with hope her journey with illness and her remarkable life force. These poems, written in her own hand-illustrated book entitled “See Me Soar and Spread My Wings,” reflect her many-sided character and unusually mature understanding. The publishing house Gvanim has published them in a book, illustrated with original water-colourings mostly by Ellie Makar-Limanov, with others by Anna Melnikov (available from Steimatsky). In addition, the Israeli Education Ministry selected six of them to be taught in Israeli schools: these can be freely viewed and the file downloaded here.
Bar’s best friend, Miryam Shtein, has written a very moving biographical account of Bar. The English version may be read and downloaded here.
Bar’s family decided to endow a prize in her name, to preserve her memory and to encourage other young poets. Voices Israel is delighted to partner with them in this initiative, and to help encourage the voices of the young in Israel.
The Bar Sagi Young Poets Prize was announced at the 2018 Reuben Rose Competition awards event on May 16, 2019. Family members attended the event and Bar’s grandfather, Professor Anthony Joseph of the Weizmann Institute, talked about Bar and her poetry.
The competition is free to enter, and awards three cash prizes (First Prize: 400 NIS; Second Prize: 250 NIS; Third Prize: 100 NIS) plus a variable number of Honorary Mentions at the judges’ discretion.
We are proud to be the first literary prize commemorating Bar Sagi; but we are far from the only one. Professor Joseph also sponsors the Bar Sagi prize for English Literature at Tel-Aviv University, and a Bar Sagi fiction prize celebrating her books and short stories at Bar-Ilan University . And starting in 2022, a Bar-Ilan young poets prize for students, aimed at schoolchildren from the UK and possibly the US.
To enter, read the Bar Sagi Prize Rules and Guidelines page.
Voices Israel Group of Poets in English 