Leora Skolkin-Smith Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Leora Skolkin-Smith

Leora Skolkin-Smith

Leora Skolkin-Smith Biography

Leora Skolkin-Smith was born in Manhattan in 1952, and spent her childhood between Pound Ridge, New York, and Israel, traveling with her family to her mother's birthplace in Jerusalem regularly. She earned her BA and MFA and was awarded a teaching fellowship for graduate work, all at Sarah Lawrence.

Her first published novel, Edges was edited and published by the late Grace Paley for Ms. Paley's own imprint at Glad Day books. Skolkin-Smith has received grants from many cultural and artistic foundations and Edges was nominated for the 2006 PEN/Faulkner Award. Awarded a stipend from the Pen/Faulkner Foundation, she is currently a contributing editor to readysteadybook.com. and her critical essays have been published in The Washington Post, The National Book Critic's Circle's Critical Mass, and other places. Edges won the 2008 Earphones award for original audio production narrated by Tovah Feldshuh and a film is currently in development.

From the author's website

Leora Skolkin-Smith's website

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Interview

Leora Skolkin-Smith explains the story behind her first novel, set in Israel in the 1960s during the Cold War.

I think, looking back, that the days "Edges" was only a cipher inside my very confused ideas about heritage and psyche, writing and autobiography, real history and the illusions of politics were the days the back-story for the novel began. I had really gone through two other unsuccessful novels, trying as hard as I could to turn the world I knew as a child into some sort of workable literary clay. Everything I formed from this clay, though, was either desperately personal or show-offey, depending on how much I had to prove to myself that I was really a writer on any given day. It was more like I was a boxer using words-- pugnacious, defensive and always so punchy.

A certain unmistakable character trait began to manifest itself these early struggling writing days. It was Grace Paley, a friend to my piles of drafts and rejection letters from publishers, who finally said: "You know, you have a certain fight and pridefulness in you not unlike your mother's." This was an alarming thing to say to me, as a major part of my ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Leora Skolkin-Smith at BookBrowse
Edges jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Leora Skolkin-Smith but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Nomi Eve

    Nomi Eve

    Nomi Eve is the author of Henna House and The Family Orchard, which was a Book-of-the-Month Club main selection and was nominated for a National Jewish Book Award.

    She has an MFA in fiction writing from Brown University and ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Edges

    Try:
    The Family Orchard
    by Nomi Eve

  • David Grossman

    David Grossman

    David Grossman was born in Jerusalem. He is the author of numerous works of fiction, nonfiction, and children's literature. His work has appeared in The New Yorker and has been translated into thirty languages around the ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Edges

    Try:
    To the End of the Land
    by David Grossman

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