Avner Shats

Avner Shats is an Israeli writer and poet, known for the story "Figs" and the novel "Sailing to the Sunset."

born 1959The short story "Figs"The novel "Sailing to the Sunset"Knowledge of Israeli maritime history

Occupation: poet, writer

Avner Shats was born in 1959 in Kiryat Yam

Avner Shats was born in 1959 in Kiryat Yam. He attended the naval officers school in Acre, in its sailing track.

He served in the Israeli Navy as commander of a patrol boat at Bardawil Lagoon and on the Dead Sea. He later earned a bachelor's degree in Middle Eastern studies at the University of Haifa and worked as a youth counselor in Afula.

From 1989 he worked for the shipping company ZIM and is considered an expert on the history of seafaring, especially in Israel. That year his short story "Figs" won third place in the Haaretz short story competition. He has also written book reviews for Haaretz, Yedioth Ahronoth and literary journals.

His novel "Sailing to the Sunset" received the Schweipert Prize in 1997. He was later a visiting writer at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and his children's story "Hila and the Sockfish" appeared in 2005. He lives in Haifa, is married and has 2 children.