Hagit Grossman wrote her first poem at age six; it was published in a school newspaper. At 14, a poem about the destructive nature of the desire to possess beauty was published in an anthology of young peoples’ writing. After her compulsory military service, Grossman wrote her first (and unpublished) book, Air. Her first published volume of verse, Nine Poems for Samuel, resulted from a trip to Minnesota in the US, where her father underwent a transplant operation. Two more poetry books have followed, Ash Whales and The Trembling of the City.