Nava Semel

Nava Semel ( born September 15, 1954 in Jaffa ) is an Israeli living in Tel Aviv journalist and writer, literary dealing mainly with the fate of people whose parents or parents' generation who survived the Holocaust and its horrors.

Nava Semel studied art history at the University of Tel Aviv. Already at the age of seventeen she began to work in various journalistic professions, including as a production assistant for Israeli television and radio. She worked for the Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Diaspora in Tel Aviv and wrote articles for various art magazines and women's magazines in Israel. In addition to short stories, poems and plays she wrote novels and several children's books. In Germany it was known primarily for her novel Gerschona, which was awarded in the U.S. with the National Jewish Book Award.

Nava Semel is with Noam Semel, director of the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv, married. Her older brother is the well-known Israeli folk rock singer Shlomo Artzi.

Works / editions

  • Glass facets. Ten stories, Frankfurt / Main 2000 ( from the Hebrew by Mirjam Pressler; first publication in Israel 1985)
  • Gerschona, Frankfurt am Main 1988 ( from the Hebrew by Mirjam Pressler; several editions, including English: Becoming Gershona, New York 1990)
  • Flight hours. The story of the girl Hadra that wants to escape the confines of their world, Berlin, 1990 ( children's book, from the Hebrew by Mirjam Pressler; several editions, including English: Flying Lessons, 1995)
  • And the rat laughs, Mannheim 2001 ( novel, from the Hebrew by Mirjam Pressler; further editions, also English: And The Rat Laughed, 2009)
  • The bride of my brother, Munich 2003 (novel, from the Hebrew by Mirjam Pressler; nominated for the German Youth Literature Award 2004)
  • Grief, hope and radishes, Frankfurt am Main 2005
  • Love for beginners. Seven Stories, Berlin 2010 ( from the Hebrew by Mirjam Pressler, illustrated by Gerda Raidt

Awards

  • 2010: Reading Peter the month of October on Books for Young Love for beginners
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