Chava Rosenfarb was born in the industrial city of Lodz, Poland. She began writing at the age of eight, with the encouragement of her father. One of the most prominent Yiddish writers living today, Chava has received numerous prizes for her work, including the 1988 and 1993 Prize of the Congress for Jewish Culture (New York), the Sholem Aleichem Prize (Tel-Aviv), the 1985 Atran Prize (New York) and the 1972 Niger Prize (Buenos Aires). Her novel, Der Boym fun lieb (The Tree of Life) won the 1979 Itsik Manger Prize, the world’s highest Yiddish literature honour. Chava lives in Lethbridge, Alberta.