Yvonne Green (born 8 April 1957) is an English

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

, translator, writer and

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and givin ...

Life and career

Green, who lives in

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Gre ...

and

Herzliya Herzliya ( ; he, הֶרְצְלִיָּה ; ar, هرتسليا, Hirtsiliyā) is an affluent city in the central coast of Israel, at the northern part of the Tel Aviv District, known for its robust start-up and entrepreneurial culture. In i ...

, was born in

Finchley Finchley () is a large district of north London, England, in the London Borough of Barnet. Finchley is on high ground, north of Charing Cross. Nearby districts include: Golders Green, Muswell Hill, Friern Barnet, Whetstone, Mill Hill a ...

, north London on 8 April 1957. She attended the Henrietta Barnett School and then went on to read law at the

London School of Economics and Political Science The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

. Green was called to the Bar in New York and England and first practised in New York at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy and the Legal Aid Society and later in London in the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and ...

but retired as a commercial barrister in 1999 so she could publish the poetry that she had always written. She is of Bukharan Jewish heritage. Her first pamphlet, ''Boukhara'', was published in 2007 and won The Poetry Business 2007 Book & Pamphlet Competition. Her first full-length collection, The Assay was published in 2010 and as a result of an award from Celia Atkin and Lord Gavron was translated into Hebrew in 2013, under the title HaNisuyi and published in Israel by Am Oved. Honoured, her most recent work has "telling detail and great emotional power" according to

Alan Brownjohn Alan Charles Brownjohn (born 28 July 1931) is an English poet and novelist. He has also worked as a teacher, lecturer, critic and broadcaster. Life and work Alan Brownjohn was born in London and educated at Merton College, Oxford. He taught in s ...

. In Honoured, Green juxtaposes the idealised vision of Israel with the Zionist narrative of the diaspora. Green was Poet-in-Residence to Spiro's Ark from 2000 to 2003, Norwood Ravenswood in 2006, Casa Shalom from 2007 to 2008, Jewish Woman's Aid from 2007 to 2009 and since 2013, to Baroness Scotland of Asthall's Global Foundation To End Domestic Violence (EDV GF). After the

November 2015 Paris attacks The November 2015 Paris attacks () were a series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks that took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 9:15p.m., three suicide bombers ...

Green read translations from

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

as well as some of her own work at a Poetry and Music of the Middle East event in St Albans. On 6 June 2016 Green's poem, "The Farhud: Baghdad's Shabu'ot 1st and 2nd June 1941", was read in the Israeli

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (wit ...

to commemorate the

Farhud ''Farhud'' ( ar, الفرهود) was the pogrom or "violent dispossession" carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 1–2, 1941, immediately following the British victory in the Anglo-Iraqi War. The riots occurred in a ...

. On 3 July 2017 Green read out Bejan Matur's poems at "The Kurdish Sisterhood" event organised by the Exiled Lit Cafe at the

Poetry Café The Poetry Society is a membership organisation, open to all, whose stated aim is "to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry". The society was founded in London in February 1909 as the Poetry Recital Society, becoming the Poetry Society ...

. She currently convenes two monthly groups, one at

Library called "Wall of Words" and the second at JW3, Europe's largest Jewish cultural centre, called "Taking the Temperature". She also regularly gives readings and talks on translating

Semyon Lipkin Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin (russian: Семён Израилевич Липкин) (6 September (19, New Style) 1911 – 31 March 2003) was a Russian writer, poet, and literary translator. Lipkin's importance as a poet was recognized once his w ...

Awards and honours

*2007 The Poetry Business' Book & Pamphlet Prizewinner for ''Boukhara'' *Winter 2011 Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation Award for ''After Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin'' *2012 Buxton prize Commendation for ''Welcome to Britain''

Published works

Poetry collections

*''The Assay'' (Smith/Doorstop, 2010) *''Selected Poems and Translations'' (Smith/Doorstop, 2014) *''Honoured'' (Smith/Doorstop, 2015) *''Jam & Jerusalem'' (Smith/Doorstop, 2018)

Translations

From Russian

*''After Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin'' (Smith/Doorstop, 2011) *''By the Sea'' After Semyon Lipkin (The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry)

From Punjabi

*''Mangoes'' After Amarjit Chandan (Brittle Star) Autumn 2005

Pamphlets and limited editions

*''Boukhara'' (Smith/Doorstop Books, 2007)

Published periodicals

*''The Silk Routes'', ''9/6/20'' & ''A Conversation With Ruth Padel'' (Issue 66 The North) August 2021 *''The Berber Women'' (Jewish Quarterly) Winter 2001/2 *''Memory of Milk'', ''Stormy Night'' (The Wolf) Autumn 2002 *''Souriya'', ''Basmati'', ''Our Food'' (Areté) Winter 2002 and (Petits Propos Culinaires 74) December 2003 *''Souriya'' (PEN International) Volume 53, No 2, 2003 *''Letter from Shushan'' (Jewish Renaissance) Autumn 2003 and (The Wolf) Spring 2004 *''There is a Boat'' (Poetry Review) Autumn 2003 *''Shoe Shopping'' (Interpreter's House) October 2003 *''Taking The Bride to the Henna Night'' (Modern Poetry in Translation) Series 3 No.2 2004 and The Haaretz Poem of the Week 27 January 2015 *''The Prayer'', ''Looking at the Crib'' (Second Light Publications 16) 2004 *''Basmati'' (Sephardi Bulletin) April 2004 *''The Cemetery at St. Martin'' (European Judaism) Spring 2004 *''There's A Different History'' (Petits Propos Culinaires 77) December 2004 *''My Fathers Room'' (London Magazine) April/May 2005 *''Our Food'' (Sameah) Spring 2005 *''Slowly The Air'' (Magma) Winter 2005 *''I Didn't Really Realise'' (Jewish Women's Aid News) November 2005 *''As Well As I Can'' (Norwood/Ravenswood's Annual Publication) November 2006 *''Without Your Jews'' (Bevis Marks Synagogue's 350th Anniversary Publication) December 2006 and (PN Review) 178 volume 34 No 2 Nov/Dec 2007 *''Mother Me Always'' (St. Nicholas Church, Idbury Publication) March 2007 *''She Can't Believe What Happens'' (Jewish Women's Aid News) August 2007 *''The Éboule (At Home)'' (Cimarron Review) Winter 2007 *''And For Years Later, After You're Free'' (Jewish Women's Aid Annual Publication) 2008 *''Originating Summons'' (The Casa Shalom Journal of the Institute for Marrano-Anusim Studies) Volume 10 2008 *''Advice'' (The Legal Studies Forum) Volume XXXII, No.1, 2008 *''A Lawyer's Poem'' (PN Review) 181, Volume 34 No. 5 May/Jun 2008 *''Ghetto Blaster'', ''That I May Know You'' (The North) 2008 and (Statement for the Prosecution Anthology) 2005 *''War Poem'', ''Silent Blessing'', ''How To Beat Your Wife'' (Cardinal Points) Volume 3 2011 *''That Kind of War'', ''Truce'' (Peace One Day Global Truce Publication) Autumn 2012 *''Joker'' (Miracle) February 2014 *''Jews'' (The North) Autumn 2014 *''Year'' (Gold Dust) 2014 *''All Artist'' (Brittle Star) Issue 34 2014 *''Jews'', ''Our Food'', ''My Fathers Room'' (And Other Poems) January 2015 *''The Poetry of Propaganda'' (London Grip New Poetry) Spring 2015 *''Dumb'' (Jewish Quarterly) Spring 2015 *''The Poetry of Propaganda'' (Jewish Renaissance Magazine) April 2015 page 51

Translated publications

Three of her poems were published in translation in the Summer 2006 edition of Dimui (Beit Moreshet B'Yerushalayim), ''Out of the Ordinary'', ''Bibi'' and ''Souriya''.
A grant from Celia Atkin and Lord Gavron enabled Green's "The Assay" to be translated into Hebrew. They were then published in Israel by Am Oved under the title ''HaNisuyi'' (הניסוי)

Writings

A conversation with Louise Glück

Louise Glück Louise Elisabeth Glück ( ; born April 22, 1943) is an American poet and essayist. She won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature, whose judges praised "her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal". H ...

gave a rare interview to Green which was published in PN Review 196 in December 2010.

Reviews

Green has reviewed the works of other poets. She has reviewed Daniel Weissbort in the April/May 2007 edition of the London Magazine.

Gaza reporting

In 2008 Green wrote "Reflections on a Visit to Shderot" that appeared on the Freedom in a Puritan Age website. Five days after

Operation Cast Lead Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...

, Green entered the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

to see the situation for herself after hearing the media reports throughout the war. She then wrote a number of pieces from her experience. She wrote a report entitled "A Verbatim Note on a Visit to Gaza". Green also wrote an op-ed article entitled "Puzzled in Gaza" that featured in

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the pap ...

and the Boston Globe where she stated, "What I saw was that there had been precision attacks made on all of Hamas's infrastructure…most of Gaza…was visibly intact." Green also had was also interviewed by

The Jewish Chronicle ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

and Bridges for Peace about her experiences.

Radio features

*''The Food Programme'' –

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

*''Woman's Hour'' – BBC Radio 4 *''Poetry Please'' – BBC Radio 4 *''Bridges for Peace Interview''

Readings and events

*''Taking The Temperature'' is a monthly group at JW3 that Green organises. She was in conversation there with Maureen Kendler on 10 February 2015 and on 23 March 2015 with Sean O'Brien. The group has an audience of readers and writers including

Elaine Feinstein Elaine Feinstein FRSL (born Elaine Cooklin; 24 October 1930 – 23 September 2019) was an English poet, novelist, short-story writer, playwright, biographer and translator. She joined the Council of the Royal Society of Literature in 2007. Earl ...

, Deborah Sacks and June Lausch. *Reading at the Pushkin House Russian Poetry Week *2007 Reading at StAnza *2008 Poets on Fire reading *2009 Talks on Gaza and

Sderot Sderot ( he, שְׂדֵרוֹת, , lit. ''Boulevards'', ar, سديروت) is a western Negev city and former development town in the Southern District of Israel. In it had a population of . Sderot is located less than a mile from Gaza (the ...

*2009 Reading of her translation of Yehuda Amichai's notes for unfinished poems *2010 Russian Translations reading at The Troubadour *2010 Poetry at The Troubadour *2012 Reading for the Exiled Writers Ink *2012 Reading at the Buxton Poetry Competition *2014 Reading at the Jewish Museum *2016 Reading of her poem "The Farhud: Baghdad's Shabu'ot 1st and 2nd June 1941" which was commissioned by Harif to mark the 75th anniversary of

The Farhud ''Farhud'' ( ar, الفرهود) was the pogrom or "violent dispossession" carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 1–2, 1941, immediately following the British victory in the Anglo-Iraqi War. The riots occurred in a ...

*2016 Featured poet at the Poetry Salon in The Master's House in Ledbury