Agur Schiff

Agur Schiff was born in Tel Aviv in 1955. Studied at St. Martin's School of Art in London (specialized in animation) from 1979 to 1981, and at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, from 1984 to 1985. Schiff won critical acclaim as a filmmaker before turning to writing in the 1990's. He published two collections of short stories, Dying Animals and Bad Weather (Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem, 1995) and Stories for Short Trips (Hakibbutz Ha'meuchad Publishaers, Tel Aviv, 1999) as well as six novels: Bad Habits (Zmora-Bitan Publishers, Tel Aviv, 2004), What You Wished For (Zmora-Bitan Publishers, Tel Aviv, 2007), In the Sand (Am Oved Publishers, Tel Aviv, 2010), The Latecomers (Am Oved Publishers, Tel Aviv, 2013 shortlisted for Sappir Prize 2014), Anonymity (Am Oved Publishers, Tel Aviv, 2017), Professor Schiff's Guilt (Achuzat Bayit Publishing House, Tel Aviv, 2021) of which an English translation is due to be published in May 2023 by New Vessel Press, New York.

Until his retirement in February 2022, Schiff served as a professor at the Screen Based Arts dept. of the Bezalel Academy of Art & Design in Jerusalem, where he taught dramatic writing and gave various courses relating to cinematic concepts.

Schiff lives in Tel Aviv with his wife Ruti and has a son and a daughter.