Ronit Matalon (1959-2017) is an Israeli author. She was born in Ganei Tikva and studied literature and philosophy at Tel Aviv University, worked as a journalist for “Haaretz” newspaper’s weekend magazine, and was head of the creative writing program at the University of Haifa in the Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature. Her stories began to appear in magazines in the early 80’s. Matalon has published 9 books: short stories, a book for young adults, essays, novels and a novella, an epistolary novel and a play. Her novel “The One Facing Us” was chosen by the New York Times’ Book Review as one of the best books of 1998. Matalon won the 2009 Bernstein Prize for her novel “The Sound of Our Steps,” and in 2010 she received the Neuman prize, as well as an honorary PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2017 she received the Brener Prize.