Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Shmuel Yosef Agnon (Hebrew: שמואל יוסף עגנון \ שְׁמוּאֵל יוֹסֵף עַגְנוֹן shmuél yoséf agnón; August 8, 1887 – February 17, 1970) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Israeli novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew literature. In Hebrew, he is known by the nom de plume Shai Agnon (Hebrew: ש״י עגנון \ שַׁ״י עַגְנוֹן sháy agnón). In English, his works are published under the name S. Y. Agnon.

Agnon was born in Eastern Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and later immigrated to Mandatory Palestine, and died in Jerusalem.

His works deal with the conflict between the traditional Jewish life and language and the modern world. They also attempt to recapture the fading traditions of the European shtetl 'small town' (cf. Yiddish: שטאָט shtot 'town, city', שטעטל shtetl 'little town', דאָרף dorf 'village'). In a wider context, he also contributed to broadening the characteristic conception of the narrator's role in literature. Agnon had a distinctive linguistic style, mixing modern and rabbinic Hebrew.

In 1966, he shared the Nobel Prize in Literature with the poet Nelly Sachs.