Ronit Matalon
# Ronit Matalon

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)

## Novels

* 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)
* Uncover Her Face (2005)
* The Sound of Our Steps (2008)
* And the Bride Closed the Door (2016) Keter

## Articles

* "Weddings and Anti-Weddings", Haaretz, 2008
