Our local groups hold regular monthly meetings, face-to-face or via Zoom. For members with no convenient local group, we also have two Global Groups which include members from both Israel and abroad: again, see the Our Team page for contact details of their coordinators.
Nationally, we have a lot going on during the year! Here’s what we’ve been doing over the past year (for our members’ poetry-related activities, see Our Members’ Recent Activities):
October to December 2025
Our Zoom workshop on Light, presented by Elana Dorfman, is on Tuesday December 9th at 7 pm Israel time. Members can register via the link on p.11 of the December newsletter.
We are now accepting submissions for the Bar Sagi competition for young poets in Israel. Please help us to publicise the competition to your children, grandchildren, and any teachers you may know! Full details are on our website: https://voicesisrael.com/bar-sagi-prize/.
The submission period for our annual Anthology opens on December 14th. As usual it’s open to anyone, anywhere: submit your three best poems! entry is free. More details are on our Submitting to the Anthology page.
The closing date for submissions to our prestigious Reuben Rose competition has passed and the judges are busy judging the poems.
We’ve sent printed copies of the chapbook resulting from our September workshop to everyone who ordered them. Anyone who wants a copy (or an additional copy), please contact Judy Koren, our chapbook producer.
July to September 2025
Our 2025 Anthology launch took place on September 14th as a hybrid event: in-person at the Karaoke Bar, Netanya, and via Zoom. For a description and photos see our 2025 Anthology Launch page.
On September 2nd we held a very successful in-person workshop, “Two American Poets”, in Haifa.
Baruch November, our 2025 Reuben Rose international judge, read poems and was interviewed about his life and poetry, by Susan Olsburgh, in a Voices Israel special Zoom presentation on Sunday August 17th. For more about Baruch November, see our August Newsletter.
The Reuben Rose Competition opened for submissions on July 15th. For details see our Submit to the Reuben Rose page.
April to June 2025
There has been considerable interest in our proposed Poetry Appreciation group — details coming soon!
The “12 day war” with Iran forced us to cancel our in-person workshop in Haifa on June 24th, with two presenters on the poets Emma Lazarus and Bob Dylan. We hope to reschedule it soon. Instead we held a mini-Zoom workshop on that date, led by Ann Bar Dov.
We held the awards event for the 35th Reuben Rose competition on April 27th, by Zoom. Thirty-two members from Israel and abroad attended. For full details see our 2024 Reuben Rose Awards Event page.
Our Bar Sagi Young Poets prize had regrettably few entries this year and it was felt that none merited an award. We hope for better results next time.
We’re happy to note that submissions to our Anthology were higher this year than for the past two years. We’ve finished the selection process — congratulations to everyone whose poems were accepted! The Anthology is currently being printed.
We’re considering opening a Poetry Appreciation group — details are in the April Newsletter. If you would like to participate in such a group please contact our President, Julian.
January to March 2025
This is the time for Early Bird membership renewal: click here to renew or join at a reduced rate (until the end of March).
On April 1st we’re holding a workshop “Poem Under Construction” at the Beit Ariella Central Library in Tel Aviv. To register please fill in the online form here.
Our AGM was held on Sunday March 23rd at 7pm (Israel time) via Zoom only. It was followed by an Open Mic poetry reading.
On March 5th at 3 pm our Upper Galilee local group gave a poetry reading at the Geiger English Library in Sfat, to celebrate World Poetry Day.
The submission period for the Bar Sagi Young Poets Prize closed at the end of February.
The submission period for our 2025 Anthology closed at the end of March 2025.
We’ve fixed the date for the joint Reuben Rose / Bar Sagi competitions award event: it’ll be on April 27th at 7 pm Israel time, via Zoom.
Voices Israel Group of Poets in English 