One of Israel's most celebrated poets, Tuvia Ruebner has been awarded every major literary prize in Israel, including the Prime Minister's Prize and the prestigious Israel Prize (2008), and numerous awards in Germany, including the Konrad Adenauer Literature Prize (2012). Born in Slovakia, he is a prolific poet who wrote his first works in German, and began writing in Hebrew in 1953. His work is pervaded with a sense of both public and personal loss, including that of his first homeland, culture, and family in the Holocaust, and later on, his first wife and son. He immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1941, and eventually settled in Kibbutz Merhavia where he lives today.