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Ilene Prusher
Ilene Prusher (born June 5, 1970) is an American journalist and novelist.

Biography
Ilene was a staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor from 2000 to 2010, serving as the Boston-based newspaper’s bureau chief in Tokyo, Istanbul, and Jerusalem and covering the the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2011-12 she was the deputy editor of the Jerusalem Report. She is now on the editorial staff of Haaretz, where she writes a blog called Jerusalem Vivendi. She also teaches Reporting Conflict for NYU-Tel Aviv, runs creative writing workshops, and writes Primigravida, a blog about motherhood. Her first novel, Baghdad Fixer, was published in November 2012 by Halban Publishers in London, which The Guardian called “a gripping debut thriller.”

After graduating from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1993, Ilene started her career as a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Later, she freelanced from the Middle East for Newsday, The New Republic, The Financial Times, The Guardian, and The Observer (UK). Her book reviews and essays have been published in The Washington Post, Haaretz Books, Moment, Habitus, Zeek and Tikkun.

As part of her coverage of the major stories of the past decade in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Israel/Palestine, Ilene has been interviewed on CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and NPR. Her coverage of Al-Qaeda’s escape from the American military in Afghanistan was cited in the 9/11 anniversary issue of The New Yorker. An excerpt of her novel was read on the BBC's World Service “Weekend” Program in November 2012, and she was featured on the “Woman's Hour” program of BBC Radio 4.

Raised in New York, she now lives in Jerusalem with her husband and two children.

Baghdad Fixer
Baghdad Fixer is Prusher’s first novel, published in London by Halban Publishers. The story follows Nabil al-Amari, an English teacher living in Baghdad in Saddam’s Iraq, when a chance encounter with Samara Katchens, an American journalist covering the war, changes his life forever. It is April 2003 and American and British forces have recently invaded Iraq.

Samara, or Sam for short, is ambitious, cynical and determined. Nabil is both fascinated and bewildered by her, and he’s keen to show her things she doesn’t notice in her rush to cover the news. She is pushed by her editor to seek concrete proof for a story concerning payments for false documents – a practice which breaks all journalistic codes of ethics – “as if truth were so hard in that way, like rocks and concrete”. In Iraq it is rarely so. As Sam single-mindedly pursues this story, she discovers a chasm between her editor’s expectations and the reality she faces in a city torn apart by war and conflicting loyalties. And in her determination to uncover the truth, she takes one gamble too many, endangering herself, Nabil and his family.

Other Works
Fiction

Works of short fiction published in Zeek (2009) and Mima'amakim (2010).

Poetry

Short collection of haikus published in an anthology entitled Multi Culti Mixterations: Playful and Profound Interpretations of Culture Through Haiku (2010)

Awards and Honours
In 2005, Ilene Prusher was nominated by Christian Science Monitor for a Pulitzer Prize for "What's a Kidney Worth," an investigative story on organ trafficking.

In December 2005, she won the Christian Science Monitor Award of Excellence for coverage of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza.

In 1998 she won the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) Award for reporting on a U.N. Agency; magazine stories on post-war Somalia.

In 1992-93 she won the Joseph Levy Scholarship for Middle East reporting at Columbia University.

Media Appearances and Citations
Ilene Prusher was a guest on CNN's "Foreign Correspondents with Christiane Amanpour", news programs on MSNBC, Fox News, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and C-SPAN's Washington Journal.

Prusher’s in-depth coverage of the Al-Qaeda leadership's escape from Afghanistan was cited in The New Yorker.

Prusher has frequently been interviewed on Middle East issues on NPR and NPR-affiliate stations.

Prusher was also featured in an International Women's Media Foundation study: "Women Who Cover War."

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