Mirie Litvak

Writing a novel is like a long journey: sometimes there are delays, deviations, and departures from the path. Translating a poem can therefore offer a helpful respite: someone greater than you takes you by the hand and leads the way.
In addition to authoring prose and translating poetry, I have enjoyed the opportunity to accompany various people along their personal journey of writing memoirs. I dedicate myself to this process, entering the storyteller’s inner soul, in the manner that a writer needs to familiarize herself with all her characters, to gain a full understanding of their stories.
My narrators open their hearts to me, and it is through this funnel that their stories pour out to the readers, in a way that is rich, genuine, accurate, and remarkably powerful.

Mirie Litvak

About me

Mirie Litvak holds a first degree in Theatre Arts from Tel Aviv University and a second degree from Sorbonne University in Paris. Her book Russian Women Sleep Naked, published by the Hakibbutz Hameuchad – Sifriat Poalim publishing house, is a critical and bitingly humorous description of a young female immigrant’s experience in the rough Israeli reality. In her book Sun Behind You, published by the Hakibbutz Hameuchad’s Kivsa Shechora (Black Sheep) series, the protagonist flits from man to man, and from country to country. Litvak’s book Longing for the Dark is also a Black Sheep series publication. Here, the writer employs witty, poetic, and definitive prose to observe two stories as two reflections, using an accurate and fascinating lens to follow the physical and emotional changes that the characters experience. Onegin’s Love for Grandma Clara, published by the Carmel publishing house, weaves Litvak’s family history against a historical backdrop of both the Former Soviet Union and Israel.

Mirie Litvak is also an experienced translator of poetry and prose. Among the authors whose work she has translated are Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Marina Tsvetaeva, Alexander Blok, Anton Chekhov, Honoré de Balzac, and Yevgeny Zamyatin, as well as the letters of Chaim Weizmann, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and others.
She is the recipient of the Prime Minister’s prize.
The writer owns the Mirie Litvak – Memoir Writer publishing house for publishing biographies and life stories. She has written dozens of books, based on interviews and documentary materials, including many accounts of Holocaust survivors.

My Creations

Reviews

Life’s journeys lead to diverse and extraordinary crossroads, such as my pleasant and exciting acquaintance with Mirie Litvak. With her aid, I managed to gather my meandering, complex memoirs into a written account, resulting in a book for my family. Mirie was a great help to me. Meeting with her for interviews, I encountered a highly intelligent woman, with deep professional and general knowledge. Our age differences didn’t matter, and Mirie was patient and very attentive. She was deeply understanding of my feelings and intents. She gently posed the correct questions, enabling me to attain my goal. I am very thankful to her for this.

Mirie Litvak recently wrote about the family history of our grandfather, Yaacov Mordecai Feldman. The book is written in a clear, flowing, and fascinating style. Our family thanks her for a book that is a pleasure to read.

Dear Mirie, I wanted to tell you that I greatly enjoyed reading the book. It is beautifully written, the flowing plot is strewn with many imaginative similes and metaphors, drawn from the natural world surrounding us, and from life itself. Your writing is beautiful: avoiding a highbrow tone, it is clear and readable. I must add that I started reading it on the eve of Shavuot and finished it at the end of the holiday. I was naturally swept into a very enjoyable reading experience. The love story between Grandfather Solly and Grandmother Clara before their marriage…so endearing. An interesting family fosters an interesting family history. You have been blessed with our grandfather’s talent. Good luck, Mirie, and continue writing.

My brother Shlomo, my son Eli, and I took rather a long time to finish reading the book about our parents. It took a while not only to read it, but also to absorb the contents, to dive into the past and connect life’s loose ends. Rave reviews to you, Mirie!!!!! With your talent and literary sensibilities, you managed to create an interesting, lucid, and readable book. We felt as if this book literally “emerged from our family’s life.” Our heartfelt thanks for this success.

I received the book today. I opened it and told myself that I’d give it a chance: after all, I’d abandoned the world of reading and imagination a time ago. I don’t have the necessary inner quiet and calm to dive into the wonderful world of reading. And what a sweet surprise! Totally drawn into reading the book, I suddenly noticed that I was on the fifth chapter!

I know Mirie personally. I'd recommend her to any secret writer. For all those who want to publish and don't dare.

To the dear and wonderful Mirie, our conversations taught me much about myself and about you, and also about writing, art, and literature. Our last conversation emboldened me to send my manuscript to publishing houses – and it was published. Thank you.

Dear Mirie Litvak, I would like to thank you for writing and editing the book “Roof First of All”, a biography of my grandfather, Yaacov Mordechai Perlman Melchik, who was one of the first Israeli pioneers. I was very satisfied with your serious and thorough work, your knowledge and professionalism, and your consideration and attentiveness to our requests and wishes. You met the work schedule and handled the publishing process in a dedicated manner. My niece, Ms. Orit Azuz, referred me to you, and I am grateful for this connection. I wish you continued fruitful work in future.

Dear Mirie, It began in the summer of ’20, when you reviewed the manuscript of “Three o’ clock in the morning”. A year later, I published the English translation of the manuscript, and a year after that, I published “Third Killer” and “Seventh Killer” in Hebrew. All this would never have happened without your mentoring. You enhanced the manuscript’s strengths and pointed out weaknesses that required corrections. My heartfelt thanks for your help.

Hello dear Mirie, thank you so much! I feel the utmost appreciation for your efforts and hard work. My heartfelt thanks – I really appreciate your caring aid.

Throughout my life, I heard stories from my mother, aunt, and grandmother, and felt it fitting to commemorate them in a biography of my mother. I sought after a highly sensitive writer, with patience and experience, and was glad to find Mirie. She is professional, patient, polite, very thorough, always available, and she keeps to schedule. I am very grateful and satisfied to have met Mirie, who did wonderful work. My mother, brother and sisters are very pleased. We needed a very patient and sensitive writer, since my mother is 86, and this is not trivial. A huge thank you to Mirie…

Thank you, Mirie, and just so you know, I considered many examples, and your writing – is in a league of its own.

Mirie, the book turned out wonderful!

Hello Mirie, I finished reading the book a few days ago, and now I’m wandering around like a sleepwalker suffused in all the memories, feelings, words, and associations that it awoke within me. While it’s true that you know more details about my family than any other, the book's authenticity was still stunning. It read like an exact account of me, my family, our past, and all the struggles, misunderstandings, and obstacles we encountered on immigrating to Israel. Chapters in the book reminded me so much of how my sons acted, communicating with their grandparents in a mixture of Hebrew and Russian! The terms of endearment you embedded into the family's speech are so familiar, they were and still are frequently on my tongue, and even spoken by my youngest son, Nathan. I also call my granddaughter кисюня, лапочка, and all other endearments that the Hebrew language does not possess to equally express affection. I think that your book is recommended, and even required, reading for all children of "Russian" families that were born and raised in Israel, to better understand their grandparents. Thank you so much for a marvellous book!

Mirie, an enormous thank you for your books. They are an immense pleasure to me.

Your poetry translations are extraordinary…Mirie Litvak – genius translator.

Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, Cultural Section, Department of Literature

Mirie Litvak, a native of Russia, a graduate of the theater department at the Sorbonne, writes Hebrew which is rich, emotive and exact, not “a virtuosity on crutches.” Her short story collection, Russian Women Sleep Naked, (Sifriat HaPoalim) and her novels, Sun Behind You, and Longing for the Dark (HaKibbutz HaMeuchad). While bearing the welcome influences of the great Russian and French literatures, they are Israeli and above all personal. Particularly powerful are her writings on the relationships between women and men; they are sensitive, accurate, and so rich in variation that wondrously the body becomes something beyond body without losing its physicality. For all this, the judges decided to award Mirie Litvak the Prime Minister’s Prize for Literature for 2006.

Mirie Litvak

Mirie Litvak

About me

My Creations

Reviews

Creativity Prize for Hebrew Writers, The Prime Ministers Fund for Prizes in Honor of the Late Levi Eshkol.

Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, Cultural Section, Department of Literature

Mirie Litvak – Author and Translator

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