Poet Yonit Namaan was born in Yehud, Israel, in 1975 to Yemenite parents. On June 25, 2018, she was featured in the episode “Spleen and Failure” of the web series A Tale of Five Poets, which offers a close look into the lives and minds of five prominent Israeli poets. 

Namaan’s Yemenite heritage is a significant inspiration for her work. Namaan speaks often of her lack of connection to her Yemenite heritage; she feels that the traditions of her heritage have been whittled down into a few disparate cultural acts, rather than a complete identity. From an early age, she was told that Yemenite women are ultra-promiscuous; the stereotype inspired her 2006 essay “Everyone knows Yemenites are great in bed,” which dives into Namaan’s experience with racism and sexualization because of being Mizrahi and how these experiences impacted her perception of herself, including her struggle with an eating disorder.  

In 2015, Namaan published her first book of poetry, Pining for the Tree Tops, which explored her feeling of being “too much.” Her second poetry collection, If A Heart Falls, published in 2018, focuses on defining what womanhood means to her. In 2020, Namaan received the Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works; in 2022 she received Haim Guri's (a celebrated Israeli poet and filmmaker) prize for Hebrew poetry. In addition to writing poetry, she co-edits “Haokets,” a website for criticism and commentary, teaches poetry at Sapir Academic College, and leads workshops encouraging dialogue between Arabs and Jews.  

In “Spleen and Failure,” Naaman explores her home and poetic life and how the two intersect and inspire each other. Her small apartment in Tel Aviv and the family that fills it often feature in her work. She sees the world and her home through the lens of poetry, finding inspiration everywhere. Naaman uses “That’s What I Want,” a poem about comparing herself to other feminine beauties and exploring her issues with body image, to usher the viewer into her world of poetry. The episode also explores her belief in shared parenting, arguing that parenthood does not need to be confined to monogamous romantic relationships. “Spleen and Failure” ends with Naaman playing with her son, speaking of how motherhood almost feels like a dream. She feels as though she has to pinch herself, to assure that her reality, of having a son who loves and depends on her, is real.  

Sources: 

Dekel, Shachaf. “Poet Yonit Naaman on Writing Poetry as an Act of Messing with Dirt.” Culture Treasures, June 24, 2018. https://culturetreasures.com/yonit-naaman/.   

Greenspan, Yardenne. “Who Decides the Mysterious Standard of Beauty?” Ploughshares at Emerson College, January 4, 2021. https://blog.pshares.org/who-decides-the-mysterious-standard-of-beauty/.   

Namaan, Yonit. “‘Everyone Knows Yemenites Are Great in Bed’: The Correlation between the Density of a Woman’s Pigment and the Title ‘Bimbo.’” Translated by Rebecca Gillis. Theory and Criticism 28 (Spring 2006): 185–91.