Ronit Matalon

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.[1] She was a resident of Haifa and taught literature at the University of Haifa.[2] 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.[3]

• 1994 – Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works
• 2009 – Bernstein Prize (original Hebrew novel category), for her novel "The Sound of Our Steps".[4][5]
• 2010 – Neuman prize, a literary prize given by Bar-Ilan University.[6]
• 2010 – Honorary Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on June 6, 2010 for her contributions to literature and for her social activism.[7][8]
• 2016 – The EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture (in Hebrew literature) [9]
• 2017 – Brenner Prize for her novel, And the Bride Closed the Door (2016) [10]

An illustration by Ruth Zarfati for the book A Story that Begins with a Snake's Funeral

• Strangers at Home (1992)
• A Story that Begins with a Snake's Funeral (1994, children's book)
• The One Facing Us (1995)
• Sarah Sarah (2000)
• Reading and Writing (2001)
• Bliss (2003) [11]
• Uncover Her Face (2005)
• The Sound of Our Steps (2008)[12]
• And the Bride Closed the Door (2016) Keter

• "Weddings and Anti-Weddings", Haaretz, 2008[13]