Ruth Almog was born in Petah Tikva in 1936 to parents of German descent who were doctors, who began their lives in Palestine raising bees and producing honey. The family was Orthodox, and Ruth studied in religious schools until graduation. She continued her studies at the David Yellin Teachers College and upon completion of her studies in 1956 enlisted in the army and served in the Intelligence Corp. She began to work as an elementary school teacher whilst studying Theater and Hebrew Literature at Tel Aviv University, later studying Philosophy and working as a high school teacher in Tel Aviv and as a teaching assistant in the Department of Philosophy at Tel Aviv University.
Her first story was published in the daily Haaretz in 1967 after which she then began to work as an editor's assistant.
In 1970, her first collection of short stories Marguereta`s Night Grace was published followed a year later by her first novel The Exile. Over the years she has published children's and teen books, novels, short stories and newspaper articles, including articles on world literature and book reviews.
Ruth Almog has won many awards. She has received the Ze`ev Prize twice (1985, 2000), the Brenner Prize (1989), the Yad Vashem Prize (2000) for her book My Journey with Alex, an Andersen Honor Citation (2000), the Agnon Prize (2001) for The Inner Lake, the Newman Prize (2004), the German Gerty Spies Prize for Literature (Rheinland-Pfalz, 2004), the Bialik Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2006) and the Prime Minister`s Prize twice (1995, 2007).
For many years she taught creative writing including at the Bet Ariela Library in Tel-Aviv, the Hebrew Writers Association in Jerusalem, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
In addition to writing, she also paints, but considers herself an amateur. Ruth Almog lives in Tel-Aviv, is married the poet and author Aharon Almog and has two daughters.
