Omer Friedlander | Photo: Yam Traiber

About Omer

Omer Friedlander was born in Jerusalem in 1994 and grew up in Tel Aviv. His debut story collection, The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land, won the Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award and was a finalist for the Wingate Prize. The book was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize, longlisted for the Story Prize, and chosen as a Sophie Brody Medal Honor Book. Omer earned a BA in English Literature from the University of Cambridge, England, and an MFA from Boston University, where he was supported by the Saul Bellow Fellowship. His short stories won numerous awards, and have been published in the United States, Canada, France, and Israel. A Starworks Fellow in Fiction at New York University, he has earned fellowships from Bread Loaf and the Vermont Studio Center. He currently lives in New York City.

Selected Awards and Honors

Winner of the Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award, 2023

Sophie Brody Award Honor Book, 2023

Shortlisted for the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize, 2023

Longlisted for the Story Prize, 2023

Finalist for the Granum Foundation Prize, 2022

Finalist for Lit Mag’s Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction, 2021

Winner of the Baltimore Review Winter Contest, 2020

Winner of the Sonora Review Contest, 2020

Winner of the Tom Howard / John H. Reid Fiction and Essay Contest, 2020

Winner of Moment Magazine’s Karma Foundation Short Fiction Contest, 2020

Finalist for the Writers’ Trust of Canada RBC Bronwen Wallace Award, 2020

Finalist for the Lamar York Prize, 2020

Finalist for the Chicago Tribune’s Nelson Algren Award, 2020

Finalist for Salamander Magazine Fiction Contest, 2020

Finalist for the Porter House Review Editor’s Prize, 2019

Starworks Fellowship at New York University, 2020

Bread Loaf Work/Study Scholar, 2019

Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, 2019