About Helen

Helen Bar-Lev was born in New York City in 1942, has lived in Israel almost 40 years.  She holds a degree in Anthropology from California State University, Northridge.  From 1989 -2001 she was a member of the Safad Artists’ Colony in the Upper Galilee where she had her own gallery.  She has lived in Jerusalem intermittently for many years.  In January 2007 she and Johnmichael Simon moved to Metulla, the northernmost town in Israel.

To date Bar-Lev has participated in 85 exhibitions, including 31 one-person shows.  Her poems and paintings have appeared in many online journals such as The Other Voices International Project; The Coffee Press Journal; Boheme Magazine; The Poetry Bridge; Sketchbook; River Bones Press; The Hypertexts; Palabras-Press; Poetry Super Highway, Gostinaia, Poetica, etc., and also print anthologies including Meeting of the Minds Journal, Voices Israel Anthologies; Manifold Magazine of New Poetry (U.K.); Lucidity Poetry Journal; Across The Long Bridge, and Sailing in the Mist of Time, both anthologies of Award-Winning Poetry; Harvest International; Poesy first international issue; For Loving Precious Beast, Ibbetson Street 21; The Rogue Scholars, June 2007; Magnapoets; Eden Waters Press; Windsor ReView; Ascent Aspirations; Deronda Review; The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture and Society; Off-the-Coast Magazine; Poetica, among others. 

CYCLAMENS AND SWORDS with poems of Israel by Helen and Johnmichael Simon was published in 2007 by Ibbetson Press of Boston, Mass. and may be ordered from the authors hbarlev@netvision.net.il.  Her watercolour paintings and sketches are featured throughout the book.  THE MUSE IN THE SUITCASE, a book of travel poems by Johnmichael Simon and Helen with black and white sketches by Helen, published by Cyclamens and Swords Publishing who also published IN MOONLIGHT THE MOON WILL SLIDE, A Poetic Conversation Between Katherine L. Gordon and Helen, illustrated by Helen.

Helen is a member of Voices Israel English Poetry Society and The Israel Artists and Sculptors Association.  She is the global correspondent in Israel for the Sketchbook, an online Journal for Eastern and Western Short Forms and also a contributing editor for this journal.  She was Editor-in-Chief of the Voices Israel Annual Anthology from 2005 – 2009 and is currently Senior Editor of Cyclamens and Swords Publishing www.cyclamenandswords.com.  Helen is also contributing editor as well as global correspondent for Sketchbook, a journal for eastern and western short forms.

She is the Amy Kitchener International Senior Poet Laureate, 2009.

To order any item on this website, please email hbarlev@netvision.net.il