Alona Kimhi (; born 1963) is an Israeli award-winning author and former actress.
Biography
Alona Kimhi was born in
Lviv
Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
(then in the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
), in 1966 and
emigrated
Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...
to Israel with her family in 1972.
Following her army service, in a
Kibbutz
A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...
in the
Negev
The Negev ( ; ) or Naqab (), is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort town, resort city ...
Desert, she moved to Tel-Aviv and studied acting at the Beit Zvi Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she graduated with honours and began her career as a Film and Theatre actress. Alona starred in several Israeli and international films, including '' Himmo, King of Jerusalem'', “Abba Ganuv”, and "Tobe Hooper’s Night Terrors", as well as playing leading roles in plays by Shakespeare, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams.
In the late 1980s, Kimhi started writing lyrics to songs by her spouse, Israeli musician Izhar Ashdot, writing articles for major magazines and began writing short stories.
Her first collection of short stories won the 1994 anonymous ACUM literary contest and the resulting book I Anastasia was published a year later to critical acclaim and became a national bestseller, winning the Israeli Copyright Society prestigious Book of the Year Award.
By the late 1990s, Kimhi became a full-time writer. Her second book and first novel Weeping Susannah published in 1998, won the 1999 Bernstein Award for Best Novel and the French WIZO award. It has since been translated into 16 languages, and published in major international publishing houses, such as Gallimard in France where she is a well-known author.
In 2009, her novel ''Weeping Susanna'' was dramatized as a
miniseries
In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...
for the Israeli cable TV channel
Hot 3
Hot 3 (styled as HOT3; ; also available in HD as HOT3 HD) is an Israeli television channel of the cable television company HOT.Izhar Ashdot and their son Ilai, writing novels, plays and screenplays for Film and TV.
Awards
* In 1996, Kimhi was awarded the ACUM Book of the Year Prize for ''I, Anastasia''.
* In 1999, she was the joint recipient of the
Bernstein Prize
The Bernstein Prize is an annual Israeli literary award for writers 50 years of age and younger. The prize is awarded by the Bernstein Foundation, named after Mordechai Bernstein, who left money in his estate to establish a foundation in order to ...
(original Hebrew novel category), for her first novel, ''Weeping Susannah''. The other prize recipient was Yocheved Reisman.
* In 2001, she received the French
WIZO
The Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO; ') is a volunteer organization dedicated to social welfare in all sectors of Israeli society, the advancement of the status of women, and Jewish education in Israel and the Diaspora.
Histor ...
Toby Press
Toby Press was an American comic-book company that published from 1949 to 1955. Founded by Elliott Caplin, brother of cartoonist Al Capp and himself an established comic strip writer, the company published reprints of Capp's '' Li'l Abner'' str ...