Ada Aharoni is an Israeli poet, writer, and lecturer. She writes in English and Hebrew and has published twenty two books to date that have been translated into several languages. She believes that culture and literature can help in healing the urgent ailments of our global village, such as war and conflict, and the themes of peace and conflict resolution are major ones throughout her works.
She studied at London University, where she earned an M. Phil. Degree on Henry Fielding, and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where she was awarded a Ph.D. on: Saul Bellow, the Nobel Prize laureate. Her first novel, The Second Exodus, was published in 1983, and To Alexandria, Jerusalem and Freedom appeared in 1985. Her historical novel From The Nile to The Jordan, was published in 1994; and in 1996 she published The Peace Flower, a fantasy for young and old, which has been compared to St. Exupery's Little Prince. She is likewise one of the editors of the book: Saul Bellow: A Mosaic, that covers the First International Saul Bellow Conference, which she initiated and chaired at Haifa University.
Among her published books are eight collections of poems in Hebrew, English, French and Arabic, and two books of translations of Israeli poetry, including Shin Shalom's New Poems. She is the Editor of the Anthology: A Song to Life and to World Peace, as well as of Waves of Peace (1997), dedicated to the memory of Yitzhak Rabin. She is the founder and editor of the Literary Magazine Galim: Waves (1987-1997), and the electronic journals internet Horizon: Pave Peace, and Poetry Israel: Lirit, featuring Israeli poets in English translation. Her latest published book is: You and I Can Change the World (Jan. 2000).
Among her many prizes and awards are: The British Council Award, the Keren Amos President Award, the Haifa and Bremen Prize, The World Academy of Arts and Culture Award, the Korean Gold Crown of World Poets Award, the Shin Shalom Prize, the Yunus Emre Award, the Rachel Prize, and she was chosen as one the Hundred Global Heroines in Rochester, N.Y, in 1998. She was also awarded the Honorary Award of HSJE: The World Historical Society of the Jews from Egypt, for her "devoted and unmatched efforts to promote the history of the Jews from Egypt, through her visionary literature and poetry proclaiming peace in the world."
She is President of the XIII World Congress of Poets (Haifa, Israel, 1992), and the founder and President of IFLAC: the International Forum for the Culture and Literature of Peace, and convener of PTLC the "Pave Peace Through Literature and Culture" commission of IPRA: the International Peace Research Association. She is also the founder and General Director of "The Bridge: Jewish and Arab Women for Peace in the Middle East."
Ada Aharoni has taught literature and sociology at the University of Haifa, and sociology and Conflict Resolution, in the general studies department of the Technion in Haifa. She has been a guest lecturer and visiting professor at several American and European universities, and wrote the last version of Not In Vain: An Extraordinary Life, while on sabbatical at Penn State University, where she taught in Women's Studies, and in the STS Department: Science, Technology and Society.
Ada Aharoni lives on beautiful Mount Carmel in Haifa, where she writes in the quieter moments of a busy literary, academic, and family life.
