Yael Renan (17 January 1947 – 2 August 2020) (Hebrew: יעל רנן) was an Israeli writer and translator.^[1]

Renan was born and grew up in Tel Aviv and attended Tel Aviv University, where she received a bachelor's degree in philosophy and a doctorate in English literature in 1978, for her work on "Figurative Language in the Prose of Modernism". She was a senior lecturer in the Department of English Literature at Tel Aviv University until her retirement in 2007, and also volunteered in the Department of Women's Studies.^[2]

The highlight of her work as a translator was the translation of James Joyce's book, Ulysses, a book of about 900 pages. Renan began translating at the age of 25, and finished translating the book after 12 years in 1985.^[2]

Renan was active in the Kav LaOved association, a non-profit association acting to protect the rights of disadvantaged workers.^[2]

She died on 2 August 2020 in Tel Aviv.^[1]

Renan received the Tchernichovsky Prize for Translation in 1994.^[2]

Among Renan's notable works are the following (in Hebrew):

• Laughter in the Dark - A Look at Modern Literature, Adam Publishing, Tel Aviv, 1986
• Laughing at God, Modan Publishing, Tel Aviv, 1996 ( with Eli Tammuz)
• Goddesses and Heroes - Myths on the Boundaries of Power, published by Am Oved, Tel Aviv, 2001
• The Poisoned Apple - The Heroine in European Legends, United Kibbutz Publishing, Bnei Brak, 2007
• Imagination and the Mind, New World Publishing, Tel Aviv, 2014

Notable authors and works translated into Hebrew by Renan include the following:

• Jean-Paul Sartre, The Transcendence of the Ego
• James Joyce, Ulysses
• Samuel Beckett, Endgame
• Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
• Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
• Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms