Keys to the Garden : new Israeli writing / edited by Ammiel Alcalay. -- San Francisco : City Lights Books, 1996.
    369 pages

This first anthology of twentieth-century Israeli literature to feature the work of writers who were born in—or whose families originated from—the Levant, Turkey, Iran, India, and Arab worlds represents twenty-four authors whose concerns with cultural identity, race, class, gender, and political allegiances place their work alongside today’s emerging rediscovered and reinvented Arab, African, Indian, African-American, and Caribbean traditions.

Table of contents:

• Acknowledgments (pp. i-iv)
• Foreword (pp. v-xii)
   
• Shoshannah Shababo (pp. 1-17)
  Simha's wondrous spell
  from Maria
   
• Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff (pp.18-39)
  from Jacob's Ladder
  A Letter from Mama Camouna
  from To Die a Modern Death
   
• Simha Zaramati Asta (pp. 40-45)
  The Dowry
   
• Nissim Rejwan (pp. 46-60)
  from Passage from Baghdad : Bookshop Days
  Al-Rabita and After
  Najib al-Mani' and Scott Fitzgerald
   
• Shimon Ballas (pp. 61-99)
  At Home in Exile: an Interview with Shimon Ballas by Ammiel Alcalay
  Iya
   
• Samir Naqqash (pp. 100-132)
  Signs in the Great Disorder : an interview with Samir Naqqash by Ammiel Alcalay
  Prophesies of a Madman in a Cursed City
  from The Angels' Genitalia
   
• Uziel Hazan (pp. 133-140)
  from The Mark of Berberia
   
• Dan Banaya-Seri (pp. 141-149)
  from Birds of the Shade
   
• Avi Shmuelian (pp. 150-161)
  from Moonstruck Sunflowers
   
• Yitzhak Gormezano Goren (pp. 162-185)
  Tel Aviv and Alexandria : an interview with Yitzhak Gormezano Goren by Ammiel Alcalay
  from An Alexandrian Summer
  from Blanche
  from Shelter in Bavli
   
• Albert Swissa (pp. 186-204)
  Escaping the Cauldron Unscathed
  from Bound
      a. In the Concrete Colony
      b. The Encounter
   
• Ronit Matalon (pp. 205-220)
  Little Brother
  Photograph
   
• Ilana Sugbaker Messika (pp. 221-231)
  Memories of an Indian Upbringing
   
• Moshe Sartel (pp. 232-253)
  The Language of the Worlf : an Interview with Moshe Sartel by Ammiel Alcalay
  Lamenting of the Birds
  A Stone I Lay from Marble of Marmara
  One Day We'll Be Other
   
• Shlomo Avayou (pp. 254-260)
  Fleeting Thrill
  Wildweed
  Odalisque of the Levant : an Ode
  Washerwoman under a Shady Tree
  Mothers Whispering Incantations
  From the Desert to the City via Home
  You Have to Abandon Jerusalem
   
• Erez Bitton (pp. 261-272)
  Families at a School for the Blind in Jerusalem
  At a School for the Blind in Jerusalem
  Hoarse Rababa
  Emendation of the Aromas
  Summary of a Conversation
  Shopping Song on Dizengoff
  Moroccan Wedding
  Zohra al-Fasiya's Song
  On the Earthquake in Agadir
  Sulika's Qasida
  Something on Madness
  Parable for the Laying of the Foundation of the House
   
• Amira Hess (pp. 273-285)
  There was a Time: an Interview with Amira Hess by Ammiel Alcalay
  from And the Moon Drips Madness
  And as Far as What I Wanted
  Then Slake Him From
  We're Children of Atlantis
  from The Information Eater
   
• Lev Hakak (pp. 286-289)
  The History of Literature. Poets
  Poem Contemplating Poets
  Letter to Ibn Gabirol
   
• Bracha Serri (pp. 290-295)
  I am the Daughter of Lot
  The Nomad in Me
  Dish
  Jerusalem and San'a
  To Hold the World
   
• Yehezkel Kedmi (pp. 296-313)
  Making a Home for Poetry: an Interview with Yehezkel Kedmi by Ammiel Alcalay
  from Eastern Ewe: Sister, Pillar of the City
      Not Equal to Them the Easterner ...
      Day Blood - Night Blood
      Raging Soul
      My People, Knowledge, and I
  from Sodom, Gomorrah and Jerusalem
   
• Shelley Elkayam (pp. 314-324)
  Writing: a Dialogue with the World : The Public and the Secret Language of Literature
  Seven Stanzas to an Indian Chief
  The Crusader Man
  With Help
  Vessel of Fragrance
  The House Has to Have an Opening to the East
  A Kind of Vague Yearning
  Garden Time
  Yes Indeed I'll Answer God
   
• Ronny Someck (pp. 325-333)
  The First Law of the Jungle, a Poem Missing-in-action
  Poverty Line
  And Her Husband Blurted Out — Buchenwald
  In Answer to the Question, When Did Your Peace Begin?
  Handcuffs, Street Poem
  Niva
  Self-Portrait from the Marines
  The Girl and the Butcher’s Window
  Seven Lines on the Miraculous Yarkon
  Embroidered Rag — Poem on Umm Kulthoum
  Street of the Welders. Wedding Singer
  Hawadja Bialik
  This is the Poem about the Young Woman Who Wanted Me to Write a Poem About Her
  Bloody Mary
  Nelson—Trafalgar Square
  History’s Blowouts in the Valley of Yehoshephat
  Jasmine—Poem on Sandpaper
   
• Tikva Levi (pp. 334-356)
  Fighting at the Borders Within : an interview with Tikva Levi
  Fig from the ’67 Borders
  Land Day
  And Finally
  To the Life of Plants on the Road
  December ’86 by the Rivers of Babylon
  The Extent of the Tragedy
  We Live in Jessie Cohen
  Poor Bertolt Brecht
  Purim Sequence
   
• Sami Shalom Chetrit (pp. 357-369)
  On the Way to ‘Ayn Harod
  Quick Take
  “And Thou Shalt Teach Them Diligently to Thy Children.”
  A Night of Scuds
  Victory Parade
  Acrid Memoryv Who Is a Jew and What Kind of a Jew?
  Bad Dream
  Hey Jeep, Hey Jeepv At an Auditorium of a Local University