Shani Boianjiu
Israeli author
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shani Boianjiu (Hebrew: שני בוינג'ו; born 30 May 1987) is an Israeli author. Her debut novel, The People of Forever Are Not Afraid, was released in 2012,[1] and has been published in 23 countries.[2] In 2011 the National Book Foundation named her a 5 Under 35 honoree.
Shani Boianjiu | |
|---|---|
שני בוינג'ו | |
Shani Boianjiu, 2022 | |
| Born | 30 May 1987 |
| Citizenship | Israeli |
| Education | Harvard University |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Writing career | |
| Language | Hebrew, English |
Biography
Boianjiu was born in Jerusalem to parents of Iraqi and Romanian descent, and grew up in Ma'alot Tarshiha and Kfar Vradim in the Western Galilee.[3][4] She attended Phillips Exeter Academy, graduating in 2005. After two years of service in the Israel Defense Forces, she attended Harvard, graduating in 2011.[5][6]
While at Harvard, Boianjiu served as president of the Radcliffe Union of Students, Harvard's feminist organization,[7] and as the co-chair of Quincy House House's Committee.[8] She was a junior research partner at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced study, working for the scholar Reuven Snir.[9] In the summer of 2008, she attended summer school at Waseda University, Tokyo.[10] In the summer of 2009, she interned at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.[11][12][13] In the summer of 2010, she used the funds she received as an Artist Development Fellowship recipient to rent an apartment right across from Iowa City's jail and write fiction.[14]
She lives in the Western Galilee and is currently[when?] completing work on her second novel.[15][16]
Boianjiu's writing has appeared in The New York Times,[17] The New Yorker,[18] Zoetrope,[19] Vice,[20] The Wall Street Journal,[21] The Globe and Mail,[22] Dazed and Confused,[23] The Guardian,[24] NPR.org,[25] Chatelaine[26] and Flavorwire.[27]
Awards and recognition
Boianjiu was the first Israeli author to be longlisted for the UK's Women's Prize for Fiction, and the youngest nominee that year (2013).[28] Her debut novel was selected as one of the ten best fiction titles of 2012 by The Wall Street Journal, [29] as one of the Pakistani Herald's best books of 2012,[30] as one of the Swedish Sydsvenskan's best books of 2013,[31] and as one of the Israeli Haaretz's best books of 2014.[32]
Boianjiu is the youngest recipient ever of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 award, based on a recommendation from the writer Nicole Krauss.[33] She was a finalist for the 2013 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature,[34] a semi-finalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award Archived 2022-04-18 at the Wayback Machine,[35] and selected as one of The Algemeiner's Jewish 100.[36] She was shortlisted for the 2014 Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize.[37]