Ilene Prusher

Raised in New York, Prusher graduated from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1993. She now resides in West Palm Beach, Florida, where she lectures on journalism for Florida Atlantic University's School of Communication & Multimedia Studies.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}

Prusher 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 were published in The Washington Post,{{Cite news |last=Prusher |first=Reviewed by Ilene R. |date=2006-02-19 |title=Baghdad Dispatches |newspaper=The Washington Post |language=en-US |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/16/AR2006021601893.html |access-date=2023-04-28 |issn=0190-8286}} Haaretz Books, Moment,{{Cite web |last=Gross |first=Rachel |date=2014-07-18 |title=Amidst Crisis, Parents Try To Do What's Best |url=https://momentmag.com/parents-in-a-battlezone/ |access-date=2023-04-28 |website=Moment Magazine |language=en-US}} Habitus, Zeek, and Tikkun.

Prusher 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 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 [http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/jerusalem-vivendi Jerusalem Vivendi]. She also teaches Reporting Conflict for NYU-Tel Aviv, runs creative writing workshops, and writes [http://www.ileneprusher.com/blog/ Primigravida], a blog about motherhood.

As part of her coverage of the major stories of the past decade in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Israel/Palestine, Prusher 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.{{Cite magazine |date=2002-09-09 |title=The Man Behind Bin Laden |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/09/16/the-man-behind-bin-laden |access-date=2023-04-28 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US}} An excerpt of her novel was read on the BBC World Service's “Weekend” Program in November 2012, and she was featured on the “Woman's Hour” program of BBC Radio 4.Starkey,K., Garvey, J., Woman’s Hour BBC Radio 4, 2012-11-19.

She now hosts a weekly radio show on TLV1 Radio, Weekend Edition.{{Cite web |url=http://tlv1.fm/shows-programming/2013/08/30/weekend-edition-anouk-lorie/ |title=Weekend Edition – Ilene Prusher | TLV1 RADIO - Great city. Great radio |access-date=2014-11-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140707055857/http://tlv1.fm/shows-programming/2013/08/30/weekend-edition-anouk-lorie/ |archive-date=2014-07-07 |url-status=dead }}

Her first novel, Baghdad Fixer, was published in November 2012 by Halban Publishers in London, which The Guardian called “a gripping debut."{{Cite news |last=Harding |first=Luke |date=2012-11-16 |title=Baghdad Fixer by Ilene Prusher – review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/nov/16/baghdad-fixer-ilene-prusher-review |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312143935/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/nov/16/baghdad-fixer-ilene-prusher-review |archive-date=2016-03-12 |access-date=2024-03-29 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} 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.

Bagdhad Fixer was published in the United States on 1 November 2014.{{Cite web |date=2014-09-29 |title=Baghdad Fixer by Ilene Prusher |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781905559473 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329170448/https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781905559473 |archive-date=2024-03-29 |access-date=2024-03-29 |website=Publishers Weekly}}{{Cite web |date=2014-10-08 |title=BAGHDAD FIXER {{!}} Kirkus Reviews |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ilene-prusher/baghdad-fixer/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222225907/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ilene-prusher/baghdad-fixer/ |archive-date=2017-02-22 |access-date=2024-03-29 |website=Kirkus Reviews}}

Works of short fiction have been published in Zeek (2009),{{Cite web|url = http://jewcy.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/seir_cafe|title = Seir Cafe|date = 18 June 2009|access-date = 11 November 2014|archive-date = 19 October 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151019215407/http://jewcy.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/seir_cafe|url-status = dead}} and Mima'amakim (2010).

Short collection of haiku have been published in an anthology entitled Multi Culti Mixterations: Playful and Profound Interpretations of Culture Through Haiku (2010).{{Cite book|isbn = 978-1450546782|title = Multi Culti Mixterations: Playful and Profound Cultural Interpretations Through Haiku|last1 = Bachay|first1 = Judith|date = 6 December 2010| publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform }}

In 2005, Prusher was nominated by The Christian Science Monitor for a Pulitzer Prize for "What's a Kidney Worth," an investigative story on organ trafficking.{{cite web |url=http://www.jpost.com/Authors/AuthorPage |title= |website=www.jpost.com |access-date=2013-07-08}}{{title missing|date=May 2022}}

In December 2005, she won the Christian Science Monitor Award of Excellence for coverage of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza.{{cite web |url=http://www.ileneprusher.com/about |title=Coming Soon |website=www.ileneprusher.com |access-date=2013-07-08}}

In 1998, she won the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) Journalists' Award Honorable Mention{{Cite web |date=2001-03-20 |title=Unca Prize for UN Coverage 2001 -- the Unca/ranan Lurie Prize for Political Cartoons, 2001 |url=https://unis.unvienna.org/unis/en/pressrels/2001/note133.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328002048/https://unis.unvienna.org/unis/en/pressrels/2001/note133.html |archive-date=2023-03-28 |access-date=2024-03-29 |website=United Nations Information Service Vienna |language=en}} for her reporting on post-war Somalia.{{Cite web |last=U. M. News |title=Murder of Journalists Now Progapanda Tool of Choice for Extremists |url=https://news.miami.edu/as/stories/2014/10/murder-of-journalists-now-progapanda-tool-of-choice-for-extremists.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413161831/https://news.miami.edu/as/stories/2014/10/murder-of-journalists-now-progapanda-tool-of-choice-for-extremists.html |archive-date=2021-04-13 |access-date=2024-03-29 |website=University of Miami |language=en}}

In 1992-93, she won the Joseph Levy Scholarship for Middle East reporting at Columbia University.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}

Prusher was a guest on CNN's "Foreign Correspondents with Christiane Amanpour,"Amanpour, C. International Correspondents CNN, 2003-03-07; Scully, S. Middle East Situation C-SPAN, 1997-08-03. news programs on MSNBC, Fox News, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and C-SPAN's Washington Journal.Scully, S. Middle East Situation C-SPAN, 1997-08-03.

Prusher’s in-depth coverage of the Al-Qaeda leadership's escape from Afghanistan was cited in The New Yorker.{{Cite magazine |date=2002-09-09 |title=The Man Behind Bin Laden |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/09/16/the-man-behind-bin-laden |access-date=2023-04-28 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US}}

Prusher has frequently been interviewed on Middle East issues on NPR and NPR-affiliate stations.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}

Prusher was also featured in an International Women's Media Foundation study: "Women Who Cover War."{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.ileneprusher.com/ Official Website]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20141021185555/http://halbanpublishers.com/index.php Halban Publishers]
• [http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/jerusalem-vivendi/ Jerusalem Vivendi]
• [http://www.ileneprusher.com/blog/ Primigravida]
• [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/nov/16/baghdad-fixer-ilene-prusher-review Review] of Baghdad Fixer in The Guardian.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140707055857/http://tlv1.fm/shows-programming/2013/08/30/weekend-edition-anouk-lorie/ The Weekend Edition]
• [http://www.fau.edu/pjhr/about/faculty-fellows/iprusher.php Faculty page at Florida Atlantic University]

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prusher, Ilene}}

Category:1970 births

Category:Living people

Category:American women journalists

Category:American women novelists

Category:Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni

Category:Journalists from New York City

Category:The Philadelphia Inquirer people

Category:The Christian Science Monitor people

Category:Haaretz people

Category:American women bloggers

Category:American bloggers

Category:21st-century American women