Poet and author Rivka Miriam has won the 2019 Yehuda Amichai Poetry Prize for Life Achievement in Hebrew poetry, Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev has announced. The prize includes an award of NIS 60,000.
“Since the publication some 50 years ago of My Yellow Smock, Miriam’s poetry has been a challenging and constant presence in Hebrew poetry... Her poetic language is contemporary, concrete and refined, yet never showy,” the judges’ citation said.
Born in Jerusalem in 1952, Miriam took as her pen name the names of two close family members who perished at Treblinka.Among the many prizes she has won for her more than 20 books – including five for children – is the Prime Minister’s Prize for Creativity, which she has won twice. Miriam is also a painter whose works were exhibited at the Tel Aviv Museum for the first time when the artist was 17.