Ethel Portnoy (1927–2004)

Ethel Portnoy was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in the Bronx, New York City, a daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants. She studied English literature and learned French before winning a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the University of Lyon in 1950. She also studied cultural anthropology and archeology in Paris with Claude Lévi-Strauss, among others. In Paris in 1951, she married Dutch author Rudy Kousbroek, with whom she had two children. She worked for UNESCO until 1962. The family moved to The Hague in 1970. There she wrote for Dutch publications such as the Haagse Post, Vrij Nederland, and the NRC Handelsblad. In 1978, along with Hannemieke Stamperius and Hanneke van Buuren, she founded the feminist literary journal Chrysallis. From 1979, she worked at the journal Maatstaf. Portnoy published her debut novel, Steen en been (Stone and Bone), in 1971. She wrote more than 25 books in English, but considered herself a Dutch writer. Her books were translated by her husband (they divorced in the 1980s), their daughter Hepzibah Kousbroek, and Tinke Davids. In 1991, Portnoy won the Annie Romein Prize from the feminist monthly magazine Opzij for her entire body of work.