Shani Boianjiu

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.

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]

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年04月18日 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]