More Zion's Fiction

Forget about start-up nation! Inspired by a science fiction novel - the 1903 proto-Steampunk utopia Old New Land by Theodor Herzl - the State of Israel is the quintessential science fiction nation.

Enter, More Zion's Fiction: Wondrous Tales from the Israeli ImagiNation, the second of an authoritative three-volume English language collection of Israeli speculative fiction.

Herzl, the Austrian journalist once famously declared: "If you will it, it is no dream." Herzl's dream was to create a modern Jewish state in the historical homeland of the Jewish people. Ours is to forge out a literary refuge for the kind of unbridled literary fancy his aspirants, tasked with transforming his science-fictional vision into a hardscrabble reality, could not bring themselves to accomplish. Yours, we hope, will be to help us pry open a long-shuttered window into the dreams and nightmares of a nation quite unlike any other.

BORN IN MONTREAL IN 1955, Sheldon Teitelbaum attended Concordia University, where he earned an honors degree in history. Upon graduation in 1977, he came to Israel, where he joined the infantry and, later, the Education Corps, after which he was sent to Officer Training School and served as a staff officer for the Paratroopers Brigade for three years. During this time, he became a member of the editorial board of the Israeli magazine Fantasia 2000, and began writing the nation's first ever SF/F book review column to appear monthly in the daily newspaper, The Jerusalem Post. Upon completing his service, Teitelbaum began a journalism career working for the magazine Newsview as well as the Jerusalem Post, which put him to use as a night desk sub-editor and as a freelance writer on weekends. During the day he worked as a science writer for the Weizmann Institute of Science. Teitelbaum moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1986, where he became Los Angeles Bureau Chief for the acclaimed film magazine Cinefantastique, a founding writer (and some years later, a senior writer) for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, and a senior writer for the Jerusalem Report. Additionally, he held down a day job for three years at the University of Southern California as a science writer and, later, for a subcontractor to the U.S. Department of Energy. Teitelbaum has published on SF/F-related and other themes in Al HaMishmar, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Forward, Time-Digital, Wired, The Montreal Gazette, SF Eye, Midnight Graffiti, Foundation: The Review of Science Fiction, Premiere Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2nd Ed. & Online Edition) and The Encyclopedia Judaica (2nd Ed.). He won Canada's first Northern Lights Award for Independent Journalism in 1998, and landed three Brandeis University/Jewish Press Association awards for excellence in news and cultural reportage. He lives in Southern California.

AVI KATZ 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 had 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; he 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 USA, which have won the National Jewish Book Award, Hans Christian Andersen honors, the 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). In 2000, Katz created for the Israeli Postal Service a three-stamp series on Science Fiction in Israel.