After the end of World War I, the family moved to Tel Aviv where Yizhar attended the Balfour school.

After earning a degree in education from the Beit Hakerem Seminar in Jerusalem, Yizhar taught in Yavniel, Ben Shemen, Hulda, and Rehovot.

His pen name was given to him by the poet and editor Yitzhak Lamdan when in 1938 he published Yizhar's first story Ephraim Goes Back to Alfalfa in his literary journal Galleons.

This was quickly followed by five additional new volumes of prose, both novels and collections of short stories, including Tsalhavim, Etsel Ha-Yam (At Sea), Tsedadiyim (Asides), and Malkomyah Yefehfiyah (Beautiful Malcolmia).

His last work, Gilui Eliahu (Discovering Elijah), set in the period of the Yom Kippur War, was published in 1999 and later adapted for the stage.

His knowledge of Israeli geology, geomorphology, climate, and flora is evident in his landscape descriptions and his emphasis on the relationship between person and place.

With his long sentences and combination of literary Hebrew and street jargon, he draws the reader into his heroes' stream of consciousness.