Orly Castel-Bloom ( he, אורלי קסטל-בלום) is an Israeli

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

Biography

Orly Castel-Bloom was born in Northern

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

in 1960, to a family of French-speaking Egyptian Jews. Until the age of three, she had French nannies and spoke only French. She studied film at Tel Aviv University and theater at the Beit Zvi School for the Performing Arts in

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and many ...

. Castel-Bloom lives in Tel Aviv and has two children. She has lectured at the universities of

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and currently teaches creative writing at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

Literary career

Castel-Bloom's first collection of short stories, ''Not Far from the Center of Town'' (''Lo Rahok mi-Merkhaz ha-Ir'')'','' was published in 1987 by Am Oved. She is the author of 11 books, including collections of short fiction and novels. Her 1992

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

''Dolly City'', has been included in the

UNESCO Collection of Representative Works The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

, and in 1999 she was named one of the fifty most influential women in Israel. ''Dolly City'' has been performed as a play in

. In ''Free Radicals (Radikalim Hofshiyim)'' published in 2000, Castel-Bloom stopped writing in the first-person. In ''Human Parts (Halakim Enoshiyim)'' published in 2002, she was the first Israeli novelist to address the subject of Palestinian

suicide bombings A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...

. Her anthology of short stories ''You Don't Argue with Rice'' (stories from 1987 to 2004), was published in 2004. Castel-Bloom has won the Prime Minister's award twice, the Tel Aviv award for fiction and was nominated for the

Sapir Prize for Literature The Sapir Prize for Literature of Israel is a prestigious annual literary award presented for a work of literature in the Hebrew language. The prize is awarded by Mifal HaPayis (Israel's state lottery), and is a part of the organization's cultural ...

. Israeli literary critic

Gershon Shaked Gershon Shaked ( he, גרשון שקד) (1929–2006) was an Israeli scholar and critic of Hebrew literature. Biography Gerhard Mandel (later Gershon Shaked) was born in Vienna, Austria. He immigrated to Mandate Palestine alone in 1939, and was l ...

called her a

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

writer who "communicates the despair of a generation which no longer even dreams the dreams of Zionist history."

Bibliography

Novels

* ''Heykan ʾaniy nimṣeʾt'' (1990). ''Where I Am'' * ''Dwliy siyṭiy'' (1992). ''Dolly City'', trans. Dalya Bilu (Loki Books, 1997; Dalkey Archive, 2010) * ''HaMiynah Liyzah'' (1995). ''Mina Lisa'' * ''Ha-Sefer he-hadash'' (1998). ''Taking the Trend'' * ''Ḥalaqiym ʾenwṣiyyim'' (2002). ''Human Parts'', trans. Dalya Bilu (Godine, 2003) * ''Teqsṭiyl'' (2006). ''Textile'', trans. Dalya Bilu (The Feminist Press, 2013) * ''HaRoman HaMistri'' (2015). ''An Egyptian Novel'', trans. Todd Hasak-Lowy (Dalkey Archive, 2017)

Short story collections

* ''Lo Rahok mi-Merkhaz ha-Ir'' (1987). ''Not Far from the Center of Town'' * ''Sevivah 'oyenet'' (1989) ''Hostile Surroundings'' * ''Sipurim bilti-retsoniyim'' (1993). ''Unbidden Stories'' * ''Radikalem hofshi'im'' (2000). ''Free Radicals'' * ''Im orez lo mitvakchim'' (2004). ''You Don't Argue with Rice''

Awards and honors

Castel-Bloom won the Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works in both 2001 and 2011, and the prestigious

for ''An Egyptian Novel'' in 2015.Orly Castel-Bloom Scoops Always Controversial Sapir Prize http://forward.com/culture/books/335139/orly-castel-bloom-scoops-always-controversial-sapir-prize/

References

External links

Orly Castel-Bloom bio
via ithl.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Castel-Bloom, Orly 1960 births Living people Jewish women writers Jewish Israeli writers Israeli women short story writers Israeli women novelists 20th-century Israeli women writers 21st-century Israeli women writers Writers from Tel Aviv Israeli people of Egyptian-Jewish descent Tel Aviv University alumni Academic staff of Tel Aviv University Recipients of Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works