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):
July to September 2026
In light of rising costs, particularly for overseas postage, we will have to increase the membership fees for 2027. Members will have an opportunity to discuss the proposed increase at an EGM on Zoom on Wednesday 28th October at 7:30pm (Israel time). The EGM will be followed by an open mic poetry reading – further details will follow soon.
The launch of this year’s Anthology will be held in-person and via Zoom on October 14th, 6 to 9 pm Israel time, at the Chalet restaurant in Kiryat Mitzkin, a 2-minute walk from the train station just north of Haifa. Registration details will be sent soon.
We’ll be holding a Zoom workshop, led by Elana Dorfman and Dina Yehuda, on the poetry of Tehillim, on Wednesday September 2nd from 7 to 8:30 pm Israel time. Registration details will be sent soon.
Dina Yehuda will be interviewing Mara Lee Grayson on Zoom on Sunday August 23rd at 7:30pm (Israel time) Their discussion will focus on Mara’s life, work and poetry. Registration details will be sent soon.
Our 2026 Voices Israel Anthology has been published and sent out to all members and contributers.
The Reuben Rose Competition is now open for submissions! The submission period this year runs until October 1st. For details see our Submit to the Reuben Rose page.
On Tuesday, 14 July, we held a special Zoom evening to honour our nonagenarian members – Ada Aharoni, Amiel Schotz, Judy Foner, Miriam Webber, Ricky Friesem, and Stanley Barkan.
April to June 2026
We have provisionally chosen to honour our nonagenarians on 7th or 14th July, – the date has still to be confirmed. The event will be hosted by Miriam Green of our Southern group.
The 2026 Anthology has been sent to the printer; we hope to be able to distribute it in early July.
We held the joint Reuben Rose Competition and Bar Sagi Prize awards event via Zoom on Thursday, 30 April 2026. Over 50 people attended including family and teachers of the winning Bar Sagi poets. The Zoom recording is up on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/NXeaU3irNns.
On April 15th, Dina Yehuda, our past Chief Editor of the Anthology,interviewed Miriam Botzer of Sfat, via Zoom, on her life and creative journey, focusing on seven of her poems. To see a recording of the live interview, click here. Passcode is: Gp*^2t3B.
The editorial board for the 2026 Anthology has made its decisions and the Anthology is now in preparation. Congratulations to everyone whose poems were accepted!
January to March 2026
Our Early Bird membership renewal period ran until March 31st. And we extended the deadline for submissions to our Voices Israel Anthology till the same date — see the Anthology section of this website.
Our Annual General Meeting proceeded as scheduled despite the war, on March 19th, and was attended by 27 people.
On March 5th, a few days after the war began, we held an impromptu Open Mic session, which was very well attended.
Our Zoom workshop on Light was so well attended that there wasn’t time to hear the poems written at it; so we held a poetry reading for them on January 13th.
The Reuben Rose Prize winners and Honourable Mention Recipients have been announced. For details, see our 2025 Reuben Rose Competition page.
Our Bar Sagi Young Poets Prize competition has now closed for submissions and the judges ae considering the entries.
Our 2026 Anthology is open for submissions, till March 31st — see the Anthology section of this website.
Voices Israel Group of Poets in English 