Ronit Berman

Ronit Matalon (Hebrew: רונית מטלון‎; May 25, 1959 – December 28, 2017) was an Israeli fiction writer.

Biography

Ronit Matalon was born in Ganei Tikva, Israel, the daughter of Egyptian Jewish immigrants. Matalon studied literature and philosophy at Tel Aviv University and worked as a journalist for Haaretz newspaper, where she covered Gaza and the West Bank between 1987 and 1993. She was a resident of Haifa and taught literature at the University of Haifa. She also taught at the Camera Obscura school for the Arts in Tel Aviv.

Matalon was also a liberal social activist, and participated in demonstrations organized by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. She was a member of the Art and Culture Council of the Ministry of Education, and the Forum for Mediterranean Culture at the Van Leer Institute. In 2003, she was a co-petitioner to the Supreme Court of Israel to investigate the assassination of Salah Shehade.

Awards and recognition

• 1994 – Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works
• 2009 – Bernstein Prize (original Hebrew novel category), for her novel "The Sound of Our Steps".
• 2010 – Neuman prize, a literary prize given by Bar-Ilan University.
• 2010 – Honorary Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on June 6, 2010 for her contributions to literature and for her social activism.
• 2016 – The EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture (in Hebrew literature)
• 2017 – Brenner Prize for her novel, And the Bride Closed the Door (2016)

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