Shani Boianjiu

Shani Boianjiu
Shani Boianjiu, 2013
Born	1987 (age 28–29) Jerusalem, Israel
Occupation	Writer
Language	Hebrew, English
Nationality	Israeli
Citizenship	Israeli
Alma mater	Harvard University

Shani Boianjiu (Hebrew: שני בוינג'ו‎‎; born 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]

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 Israeli 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 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 Sydvenskan'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,^[35] and selected as one of The Algemeiner's Jewish 100.^[36] She was shortlisted for the 2014 Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize.^[37]

References