Ethel Portnoy was born in
Philadelphia but grew up in the
Bronx in
New York City as the daughter of
Russian-Jewish immigrants. She took classes in English literature in
New York City and learned French in the United States, then departed to Europe in 1950 with a
Fulbright for the University of Lyon. She also studied
cultural anthropology and archeology in
Paris, with
Claude Lévi-Strauss amongst others. She married Dutch author
Rudy Kousbroek (1929–2010) in 1951. She raised two children and until 1962 she worked at the
UNESCO. She worked for Dutch papers and was published in
Randstad, in the weeklies
Haagse Post and
Vrij Nederland and also in the
NRC Handelsblad. The family moved to The Hague in 1970. In 1978 Portnoy and
Hannemieke Stamperius founded the feminist literary journal
Chrysallis. Since 1979, she worked at the journal
Maatstaf. Portnoy debuted as a novelist in 1971 at the age of 44 with the book
Steen en Been. She wrote in English, but considered herself a Dutch writer. Her books were translated by her (ex-)husband (they were divorced in the 1980s), their daughter Hepzibah Kousbroek (1954–2009) and by Tinke Davids. == Works ==