Leora Skolkin-Smith's new novel HYSTERA is the winner of this year's Global E-Books Award and the 2012 USA Book Awards. Hystera is published by Fiction Studio Books, Lou Aronica, Publisher.HYSTERA has also been awarded as a Finalist in Literary Fiction in the 2012 International Book Awards, and the National Indie Excellence Awards.Ms. Skolkin-Smith was born in Manhattan in 1952, and spent her childhood between Pound Ridge, New York, and Israel, traveling with her family to her mother's birthplace in Jerusalem every three years. She earned her BA and MFA and was awarded a teaching fellowship for graduate work, all at Sarah Lawrence.Her first published novel, EDGES was edited and published by the late Grace Paley for Ms. Paley's own imprint at Glad Day books. EDGES was nominated for the 2006 PEN/Faulkner Award by Grace Paley. Recently, her work has been chosen by Princeton University and the Department of the Humanities for their series: "Fertile Crescent Moon: Stories from the Middle East Diaspora."THE FRAGILE MISTRESS, a feature film based on EDGES, is currently in pre-production, scheduled to begin shooting on location in Jerusalem, Jordan, and New York, produced by Triboro Pictures, directed by Michael Gunther. http://www.thefragilemistress.comExcerpts from HYSTERA were first published by Persea Books, and recently appeared in The Hamilton Stone Review. Recent publications include a piece from THE FRAGILE MISTRESS, which appeared in Guernica Magazine in 2010. She was recently a panelist, at MAINE READS, The Haitian Cultural International Book Festival, The Miami International Book Fair, The Virginia Festival of the Book, and The National Women's Association. She is currently a contributing editor to readysteadybook.com. and her critical essays have been published in The Washington Post, The National Book Critic's Circle's Critical Mass, Conversational Reading, the Quarterly Review, and other places.