Etgar Keret

Etgar Keret was born in 1967 in Ramat Gan

Keret was born in 1967 in Ramat Gan, where he grew up. He was the youngest child of Efraim and Orna Keret, Holocaust survivors from Poland. He was born premature, and his mother named him Etgar, meaning challenge.

He attended Ohel Shem high school and later studied in an interdisciplinary program at Tel Aviv University. In the IDF he served as a computer operator.

His first book, Pipelines, came out in 1992, and Missing Kissinger followed in 1994. He wrote comics with Rutu Modan and Asaf Hanuka, and his writing uses everyday language and slang. His story collection Glitch at the Edge of the Galaxy won the Sapir Prize.

He wrote for the TV sketch show The Cameri Quintet for 3 seasons. With his wife Shira Geffen he directed the film Jellyfish, which won the Camera d'Or at Cannes in 2007. Several of his stories were adapted into films and plays.

He is an associate professor of Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He lives in Tel Aviv, and his son is the actor Lev Keret.