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
Our 2026 Anthology is ready for distribution! It’s only sent to paid-up members so if you haven’t yet paid membership dues for 2026 – you need to do so now if you want to receive your copy.
On Tuesday, 14 July, we’re holding a special Zoom evening to honour our nonagenarian members – Ada Aharoni, Amiel Schotz, Judy Foner, Miriam Webber, Ricky Friesem, and Stanley Barkan.
In light of rising costs, particularly for overseas postage, we will have to increase the fees for 2027. Members will have an opportunity to discuss the proposed increase at an EGM to be held in the near future.
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.
October to December 2025
On December 9th we held a very well-attended Zoom workshop on Light, presented by Elana Dorfman.
The submission period for our annual Anthology opened 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.
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.
Voices Israel Group of Poets in English 