TAMAR YELLIN: WINNING PRIZES RIGHT AND LEFT

One of my favorite writers, Tamar Yellin, quietly won a couple of prestigious literary awards last year for her two most recent books. Very happy to see this.

Kafka in Bronteland has been awarded the Reform Judaism Prize for Jewish Literature 2006. The $5,000 prize has previously been awarded to Dara Horn, David Bezmozgis and Jonathan Rosen. The judges stated: "Every story in Tamar Yellin's Kafka in Bronteland closes with the decisive, revelatory resonance that marks the best examples of this literary form."

The Genizah at the House of Shepher has been awarded the Ribalow Prize for Jewish Literature 2006. The award, presented annually by Hadassah Magazine, the largest circulation Jewish publication in the U.S., honours an author who has created an outstanding work of fiction on a Jewish theme. Past winners have included Lore Segal, Anne Roiphe, Louis Begley and Aharon Appelfeld. The panel of judges included Elie Wiesel, Jonathan Freedman and Jenna Blum. The prize was awarded on December 12th in New York.

Jeff