Rafi Zabor (born Joel Zaborovsky, August 22, 1946) is a

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York–based

music journalist Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

- and musician-turned-novelist.

Life and work

A graduate of

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

, Zabor became a jazz critic for ''

Musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

'' in 1977, and later became an editor for the magazine. He received the 1998

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living American citizens. The winner receives US$15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US$5000. Fi ...

for his first novel, ''

The Bear Comes Home ''The Bear Comes Home'' is a novel written by Rafi Zabor. It won the 1998 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. It was selected as an alternate for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. Details The novel tells the story of an alto saxophone-playing bea ...

'', which follows an

alto saxophonist The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

– who happens to be a bear – in his pursuit of musical perfection. Zabor's second book, the memoir ''I, Wabenzi'', was commercially unsuccessful and met with mixed critical response. In 2008, Zabor received an NEA Literature Fellowship. , he was reportedly working on a new novel, to be titled ''The Bosphorus Dogs.'' Zabor is also a jazz drummer.

Bibliography

* ''

'' (1997) * ''I, Wabenzi'' (2005)

References

External links

"Of the Tree and its Four Birds"
by Rafi Zabor, at

Words Without Borders ''Words Without Borders'' (''WWB'') is an international magazine open to international exchange through translation, publication, and promotion of the world's best writing and authors who are not easily accessible to English-speaking readers. The ...

1946 births Living people 20th-century American novelists American people of Polish-Jewish descent American male novelists 21st-century American novelists PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Brooklyn College alumni {{US-novelist-1940s-stub