Words that heal and hold

When Yishay Ishi Ron experienced a total psychological collapse in 2022, writing was the only thing he could still do.

When Ayelet Tsabari sat down to write her novel, she was chasing characters she had spent a lifetime waiting to see on the page. Both found their way to books that have resonated far beyond anything they expected, and next month they will bring those stories to Australia.

The two authors will appear at Melbourne Jewish Book Week on August 2, with Tsabari in conversation with Lee Kofman and Ishi Ron with Ben Lindner. The following evening they join forces on stage with Michaela Kalowski at the Shalom Collective Australian Jewish Writer Awards in Sydney, an evening that will also announce winners across five categories of Australian Jewish writing.

Ishi Ron’s debut novel Dog, which received two US National Jewish Book Awards and is now being adapted into a film, draws on his experience of severe PTSD after serving in an elite combat unit. It took years before he understood what he had been carrying.

“I had lived for years with anxiety, panic attacks, nightmares, and other symptoms without fully understanding that they were all manifestations of PTSD from my military service,” Ishi Ron told The AJN. “My therapists knew I was a novelist, and they encouraged me to use writing as part of my healing process. Looking back, Dog was never intended to be therapy, but writing it allowed me to confront emotions and memories I had spent years trying to suppress.”