Orly Castel-Bloom is one of Israel’s most prominent writers. She was born in Tel Aviv in 1960 to parents from Egypt, studied film at Tel Aviv University and began publishing in 1987. Her book Dolly City was translated by UNESCO to English and distributed around the world. She was recognized as one of the 50 most influential women in Israel in 1999. She won the Tel Aviv Prize (1990), the Alterman Prize (1993) She won the Prime minister’s prize twice (1994 and 2001) and the Newman Prize was awarded to her in 2003. Her book The Egyptian Novel won the Sapir Prize in 2015. Her books have been translated into nine languages. She lives in Tel Aviv and is the mother of two.