Michèle Kahn

Michèle Kahn was born to a Jewish family in Nice, France and grew up in Strasbourg. She began writing as a child and was first published at age 14. She graduated from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris and became a journalist and a prolific author. She worked for Le Magazine Littéraire from 1987 to 2006 and L'Arche magazine from 1993 to 2010. She is a blogger for The Times of Israel in French. She first wrote about 100 books for children and young adults and began writing for a general audience in 1997. Her novels, which are strongly grounded in historical detail, draw readers from around the world. Her work is often inspired by Jewish history and culture. She has served as vice-president of the Société des gens de lettres as well as of the Société civile des auteurs multimédia (SCAM). She is a co-founder of the Prix Littéraire du Rotary, and a founding member of the SCAM Prix Joseph Kessel and the Prix François Billetdoux. She is vice-president of the Prix des Romancières and serves as a a member of various other literary juries.
She was president of the Children's Books Commission at the Center National du Livre (Ministry of Culture) from 1998 to 2001. The Bibliothèque Michèle Kahn, a library for young people, was established in her honor in 1997 by the Alliance israélite universelle in Paris.