More women than men wrote and published works of prose and poetry in Hebrew last year, the 2021 annual report of the National Library of Israel showed, a novelty since the library began collecting statistics.
Tuesday’s report that Israel’s literary scene is experiencing a post-COVID boom, recovering from a 2020 crisis.
In 2021, a total of 7344 books were published, 94% of which belong to the categories of prose and poetry. Women wrote 52% of the original Hebrew literature in general and 54% of the poetry in the Hebrew language. In 2017, women wrote 42% of the original literature in Hebrew.
Nearly 92% of books published in Israel in 2021 were in Hebrew, followed by 4. 8% in English, 2. 2% in Arabic and 0. 6% in Russian. 86% of books published in Israel in 2021 were published in their original language; 69% of books translated from other languages were written in English, followed by French (6%), German (6%) and Arabic (3%). The rest has been translated from 36 other languages.
Only 165 books in Arabic were included in the 2021 report of the National Library of Israel. This represents a decrease from 214 in 2020, which recorded lower overall figures than in previous years. The library attributed it to virtual publication in Arabic, as opposed to printing.
Other trends come with an accumulation of biographies, especially about “non-public characters,” as well as children’s books and comics. The number of published books similar to the humanities and social sciences has also declined from 2019 levels.
The number of government and nonprofit print reports has also declined since 2019, basically because those organizations have opted to publish reports online rather than on paper.
According to the “Book Law” of 2000, any e-book published in more than 50 copies in the State of Israel must send two copies to the National Library. This applies to e-books written in any language, adding translations.
The library’s annual report is published a year before Hebrew Book Week, a festival celebrating Hebrew literature, which this year begins on June 15.
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