Dara Horn

Dara Horn (born April 28, 1977 ) is an American novelist, essayist, and professor of literature. She is a three-time winner of the National Jewish Book Award and a recipient of both the Ribalow Prize and Edward Lewis Wallant Award.

She published her first novel In the Image in 2002, which won the Edward Lewis Wallant Award and a National Jewish Book Award. Her second novel The World to Come in 2006 won a National Jewish Book Award and the Ribalow Prize and was named one of the best books of 2006 by the San Francisco Chronicle. In 2013, Horn published her fourth novel A Guide for the Perplexed. Her fifth novel Eternal Life was selected as one of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year in 2018.

Horn released her first nonfiction book People Love Dead Jews in 2021. The book, a collection of twelve essays, was a finalist for the 2021 Kirkus Prize in nonfiction and selected as one of The New York Times''' 100 Notable Books of 2018

In 2016, Horn founded the Tell Institute, an education non-profit.

Early life and education Horn was born in 1977 and grew up in Short Hills, New Jersey with three siblings. When Horn was 14, she won a trip to Poland and Israel in a quiz competition about Israeli history, and then wrote an essay about her trip for Hadassah Magazine that was nominated for a National Magazine Award in 1993.

She received her BA in comparative literature, summa cum laude, in 1999 and her Ph.D. in comparative literature in Hebrew and Yiddish in 2006, both from Harvard University. She finished her master's degree in Hebrew literature at Cambridge University.

Career She taught classes in Jewish literature and Israeli history at Sarah Lawrence College and the City University of New York. She held the Weinstock visiting professorship in Jewish Studies at Harvard,

Books Horn's first novel, In the Image, published by W. W. Norton when she was 25, received a 2003 National Jewish Book Award and the 2002 Edward Lewis Wallant Award. and has been translated into eleven languages.

Horn's third novel, All Other Nights, published in April 2009 by W. W. Norton, was selected as an Editors' Choice in the New York Times Book Review.

Her fourth novel, A Guide for the Perplexed, was published in September 2013. A review in the New York Times stated, "Horn has taught Jewish literature and history, and her writing comes from a place of deep knowledge and research...I admired Horn's intensity and integrity, much as I admired the same qualities in her characters."

Horn's fifth novel, Eternal Life, was published in January 2018 by W. W. Norton. It was selected as one of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2018.

Horn released her first nonfiction book, People Love Dead Jews, in 2021. The title is based on a 2018 Smithsonian Magazine article by Horn that began "People love dead Jews. Living Jews, not so much," which is reprinted in the book as an essay titled "Everyone's (Second) Favorite Dead Jew." According to Yaniv Iczkovits in the New York Times, the collection of twelve essays "explore how the different ways we commemorate Jewish tragedy, how we write about the Holocaust, how the media presents antisemitic events, how we establish museums to honor Jewish heritage, how we read literature with Jewish protagonists and even how we praise the ‘righteous among the nations’ (those who saved Jews during the war), are all distractions from the main issue, which is the very concrete, specific death of Jews." Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Martin Peretz said, "This is a beautiful book, and in its particular genre—nonfiction meditations on the murder of Jews, particularly in the Holocaust, and the place of the dead in the American imagination—it can have few rivals. In fact, I can't think of any." People Love Dead Jews was a finalist for the 2021 Kirkus Prize in nonfiction. The New York Times listed it as one of the 100 Notable books of 2021, and Publishers Weekly listed it in the top 20 books of the year. Tablet magazine produced a companion podcast, Adventures With Dead Jews, hosted by Horn, where she explores topics in Jewish history that didn't make it into the book.

Her second non-fiction book is "The Final Solution to the Jewish Question: A Love Story for the Living," which explores Holocaust education, American Jews' "Golden Age," antisemitism and antizionism, and the relationship of non-Jews with Jews.

Advocacy Horn founded the Tell Institute to tell the story of the Jewish people, that "Jews are among the first groups in history to stand up to tyranny, and to this day they continue to do so." The institute employs educators who write lesson plans and teacher trainings about "the groundbreaking ideas of Jewish civilization that continue to shape Jewish communities as well as the broader world".

Views At a March 2026 panel in New York City, Horn argued that the fight against antisemitism "had failed" and that "almost every mass educational effort that we call fighting antisemitism...has involved erasing who Jews are." She added, "There is no point in fighting antisemitism, if we don't know what we're fighting for." She worried that too little Jewish communal effort has focused on Jewish knowledge, identity, education.

Personal life She lives with her husband, daughter, and three sons. Horn has one brother and two sisters.

Honors 2002 Edward Lewis Wallant Award 2003 National Jewish Book Award 2006 National Jewish Book Award Best Books of 2006 by the San Francisco Chronicle Granta'' magazine, Best Young American Novelists, 2007 2007 Harold U. Ribalow Prize Finalist, 2021 Kirkus Prize in nonfiction