Ronit Matalon

Ronit Matalon (1959-2017) was born in Ganei Tikva, Israel, to a family of Egyptian-Jewish descent. She studied literature and philosophy at Tel Aviv University. Matalon has worked as a journalist for Israel TV and for the daily Haaretz, covering Gaza and the West Bank during the First Intifada. She has also worked as a critic and book reviewer for Haaretz. At present, she is senior lecturer in Hebrew and comparative literature at Haifa University and teaches creative writing there as well as at the Sam Spiegel Film School in Jerusalem. Matalon is a member of the Forum for Mediterranean Culture at the Van Leer Institute. Three of her books have been bestsellers in Israel, and her children’s story, A Story that Begins with a Snake’s Funeral, has been made into a movie.

Matalon has received the Prime Minister’s Prize (1994), the prestigious Bernstein Prize (2009), the Neuman Prize (2010), the Prix Alberto-Benveniste (France, 2013) for The Sound of Our Steps, the EMET prize (2016) and the Brenner Prize for And the Bride Closed the Door (2017). In 2010, she received an Honorary Doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Photo by: Iris Nesher