Asaf Ashery is among Israel’s leading young authors as well as a noted screenwriter. He has published a collection of short stories and two novels and has worked on several projects for Israeli TV. Formerly chief editor at Israel’s Opus Press, he lectures on creative writing and screenwriting at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Ashery has been nominated for Israel’s Geffen Award three times, most recently for his best-selling novel Waiting in the Wings, which is currently being adapted for television and is in the process of translation into English. A sequel, Sambatyon, is currently in the works. In 2008/09, Ashery was a Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois. He is here in conjunction with the Israel Studies Project. In the Fall of 2008, he taught Advanced Hebrew and Israeli Cinema.