Zion's Fiction

Sheldon (Sheli) Teitelbaum is a Los Angeles-based Canadian/Israeli editor and writer, a former contributor to and member of the editorial board of the seminal Israeli SF magazine Fantasia 2000. He has contributed essays on Jewish and Israeli SF/F to the scholarly journal Foundation: The Review of Science Fiction, to the SF/F trade magazine Locus, and to the authoritative second and third (online) editions of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and The Encyclopedia Judaica.Teitelbaum has also covered SF film, television, books and dark fantasy extensively for Cinefantastique, Cineaste, Midnight Graffiti, The Los Angeles Times, Wired, SF Eye, the Jerusalem Report, The Forward and the Jerusalem Post. The second and subsequent online edition of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (Orbit, 1993) cited him as the first Israeli critic to contribute a regular column on science fiction to a daily Israeli newspaper. Dr. Adam Rovner, an Associate Professor of English and Jewish Literature at the University of Denver, generously (if extravagantly) described Teitelbaum in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal as “the expert in the area of Israeli sci-fi.”Teitelbaum, a long time senior writer for the Jerusalem Report, received Canada’s first Northern Lights Award, three Brandeis University Jewish Press Association Awards and a Bronze Quill Award from the International Association of Business Communicators. He is a member of the Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy.Emanuel Lottem, Ph.D. (Econ) Emanuel Lottem has been a central figure in the Israeli science fiction and fantasy scene since the mid-1970s: Translator of some of the best SF/F books published in Hebrew and editor of others; advisor to beginning writers; the moving force in the creation of the Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy and its first Chairman; the founder of its annual ICon conventions and other activities.Lottem’s first SF translation was Frank Herbert’s Dune, which has become a classic. According to Israeli literary historian Eli Eshed, "this translation is considered a masterpiece of SF translations"; and according to the Hebrew Wikipedia, "some consider it even better than the original version", a flattering characterization which Lottem nonetheless disagrees with. More SF/F translations followed, and Lottem’s name became familiar to and respected by Hebrew-reading fans.After a few career changes, Lottem became a freelance translator and editor. In addition to SF/F, he also specializes in popular science and military history. In 1983, Lottem became chairman of the editorial board of the Israeli SF/F magazine Fantasia 2000, which unfortunately (but in terms of the exigencies of Israeli publishing, perhaps miraculously as well) lasted for 44 issues before rolling down its awning. A few years later, in 1996, Lottem presided over the inaugural meeting of the Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy, which he founded with a small group of devoted fans. Visiting author Brian Aldiss officially announced the ISSF&F open for business, and Lottem was unanimously elected its first Chairman.To date, Lottem’s SF/F translations include works by Douglas Adams, Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, Lois M. Bujold, C.J. Cherryh, Arthur C. Clarke, Michael Crichton, Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, Robert A. Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Ursula Le Guin, Ann Leckie, Larry Niven, Mervyn Peake, Robert Silverberg, James Tiptree, Jr., J.R.R. Tolkien, Jack Vance, and Connie Willis, among many others. In 1994 Lottem won one of Israel’s highest translation awards, the Tchernichovsky Prize, for his translation of Richard Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene.Avi Katz, Illustrator, is a veteran American-born Israeli illustrator, cartoonist and painter. His interest in SF/F illustration began early; while still a teenager in Philadelphia he sent a pack of his Lord of the Rings art to J.R.R. Tolkien, and received an enthusiastic response from the author, who told him he was the first illustrator to portray the dwarves as he intended.At age 20, while studying art at Berkeley, he was interviewed by John W. Campbell but decided to avoid the draft and Vietnam and complete his studies at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, and has made his home in Israel since then. He has been the staff illustrator of The Jerusalem Report magazine since its first issue in 1990 and is active in the international organization Cartooning for Peace, as well as the Association of Caricaturists in Israel. He has illustrated some 170 books in Israel and the U.S., which have won the National Jewish Book Award, Hans Christian Andersen honors, Ze’ev Prize and others; he was a nominee for the lifetime- achievement Astrid Lindgren Award.A founding member of the Israel Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy, Katz created many original book covers for SF/F published in Israel; his illustrations graced the covers of Society posters and all the issues of The Tenth Dimension fanzine over the decade of its publication. He has exhibited at various sci-fi conventions including WorldCon 2003, and was Guest of Honor at ICon 2002. He is featured in the book Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art (Rockport Press).

• Foreword by Robert Silverberg (2,000 words)Introduction by Sheldon Teitelbaum and Emanuel Lottem (13,500 words)The Smell of Orange Groves by Lavie Tidhar (5,250 words)The Slows by Gail Hareven (4,000 words)Burn Alexandria by Keren Landsman (10,500 words)The Perfect Girl by Guy Hasson (18,650 words)Hunter of Stars by Nava Semel (6,000 words)The Believers by Nir Yaniv (3,650 words)In the Mirror by Rotem Baruchin (2,175 words)Suddenly, a Knock on the Door by Etgar Keret (1,700 words)The Stern-Gerlach Mice by Mordechai Sasson (5,000 words)A Good Place for the Night by Savyon Liebrecht (14,200 words)Death in Jerusalem by Elana Gomel (7,800 words)White Curtain by Pesakh (Pavel) Amnuel (3,250 words)Two Minutes Too Early by Gur Shomron (4880 words)A Man’s Dream by Yael Furman (4,175 words)My Crappy Autumn by Nitay Peretz (15,450 words)They Had to Move by Shimon Adaf (5,150 words)Afterword by Aharon Hauptman (950 words)The Editors (900 words)Acknowledgements (1,000 Words)

This is an essential and important work of genre scholarship that will introduce the vital work of Jewish and Arab authors in Israel as they create the future and, to steal a phrase, explore strange new worlds and boldly go where no mensch has gone before. –Mark Altman, Writer/Producer, Free Enterprise, "World’s Foremost Trekspert" (The Los Angeles Times).What a rate of mutation! That mystic shepherds should become a people of priests and sacrifices, then transform under hard pressure into enduring, argumentative teachers, then again into scientific pioneers… and now? Zion’s Fiction explores the unlimited dreams of a people who have learned to stand on shifting ground. To face a future filled with danger and hope, forging into territory that can only be surveyed with the lamp of imagination on our brows.– David Brin, author of EARTH and ExistenceThere is no gainsaying the worth of a literary anthology, especially in the field of fantastic literature. Other Canadas created the concept of Canadian science fiction and fantasy. I have no doubt that the anthology proposed by Sheldon Teitelbaum and his collaborators will do the same for the literature of the powerful imagination of the Israeli people.– John Robert Colombo, author, anthologistI have never been a fan of science fiction but I am fanatic about celebrating the incredible diversity of opinion, artistic expression and, yes, thought that the Jewish people in Israel celebrate every day. In a region where freedom remains as scarce as water in the desert, I know that Zion’s Fiction will attract many followers — Science Fiction mavens the world over... and the rest of us, Jews and non-Jews alike. B’hatzlacha! [Good luck!] – Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean, The Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles.When my collection Wandering Stars: An Anthology of Jewish Fantasy and Science Fiction was published eight hundred years ago in 1974, the estimable author Leo Rosten asked, “Jewish Science fiction?” In fact everybody asked… “What? Jewish science fiction?” Bless his heart, Leo Rosten went on to say that the book was “unexpected, delightful, and delirious,” and what seemed at first to be a “huh?” idea became a classic. And now…now, right now, we have the first ever anthology in the entire universe of Israeli fantasy and science fiction: Zion’s Fiction. What??? Israeli Science fiction??? So, nu? Go forth and read…and may you find Zion’s Fiction unexpected, delightful, and delirious!– Jack Dann, author, anthologistI’m thrilled to hear of this project. At last I can read some of Israel’s best science fiction! Translators are the hidden heroes that make the global village work. I co-edited ‘Speculative Japan’ a collection of Japanese SF, and I know that the translations in Zion’s Fiction will be first rate. The quality of the translation decides the quality of the book, and I know that the translations in Zion’s Fiction will be first rate. I co-edited Speculative Japan, a collection of Japanese SF. I know that the quality of the translations decides the quality of the book, and I know that the translations in Zion’s Fiction will be first rate.– Grania Davis, editor, writer, translator, widow of American-Israeli SF writer Avram DavidsonIsraeli writers and readers need an anthology like this. May it accomplish for Israeli science fiction the wonders and mind-opening possibilities that science fiction offers– James Gunn, author, anthologist, teacher, SF historianThe State of Israel’s rebirth was a miracle. Its survival to this day is a continuing miracle. It is a land of scientific and human miracles. It makes perfect sense that Israel’s rich and tumultuous culture should produce a blossoming science fiction community. A land that welcomes Ashkenazi, Sephardim, Ethiopian Jewry, Arabs, Russians — a melting pot of the world’s intellects and creators — will inevitably bless the world with its unique and uniquely varied visions! – Richard A. Lupoff, novelist, editor, SF historian, critic, radio hostOne of Israel’s best-kept secrets has been the existence of a vibrant, colorful and imaginative community of mostly young science fiction and fantasy writers. Their work, long hidden behind the language barrier, is now about to burst out to the world in the Zion’s Fiction anthology. May the Force be with them! – Avi Nesher, internationally acclaimed Israeli filmmakerGreat storytelling has been coming out of the Holy Land since the time of the Book of Genesis, and the tradition probably goes back a long way before that. This splendid new anthology will open a window on contemporary Israeli fantasy and science fiction — a stream of powerful work that we need to know more about. - Robert Silverberg, author, anthologistZion’s Fiction will supply a distinctive bright line to the spectrum of futuristic fiction, which stands in sore need of broadening, in the cause of promoting cross-cultural understanding as well as showcasing exciting new talent. – Brian Stableford, author, SF historian