Tony Eprile

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Tony Eprile is a South African and American writer, born in 1955 in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. He comes from Jewish parents; his mother, Liesel Weil, came from a German Jewish family in Frankfurt, and his father, Cecil Eprile, was a Scottish Jew who edited a liberal newspaper in South Africa. The family moved first to England when Tony was 12, and later to the United States around 1970–1972. As a teenager, he wrote a South African–themed short story that caught the attention of poet Robert Hayden, who became an important mentor.

Early life
Tony grew up in a Jewish family in South Africa. His father’s work aimed at ending apartheid influenced his outlook. The family’s moves across three countries exposed him to different cultures and languages, shaping his later writing.

Education
He studied Anthropology at Connecticut College for his bachelor’s degree and earned a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Brown University.

Career
Eprile is the author of Temporary Sojourner and Other South African Stories (1989), which was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His novel The Persistence of Memory (2004) won the Koret Jewish Book Award in 2005, beating out The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. The Persistence of Memory was also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and appeared on best-book lists from The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.

He has taught writing at Northwestern University, Williams College, Bennington College, Lesley University, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Eprile has written guest columns, book reviews, literary criticism, and interviews for The New York Times, The Nation, The Washington Post, Tablet, and The Johannesburg Review of Books. He serves on the Editorial Advisory Panel of The Johannesburg Review of Books, alongside Antjie Krog and Lauren Beukes.

Personal life
Eprile lives in Vermont, United States, with his wife, Judith D. Schwartz, whom he married in 1989.

Publications
- Short stories: Temporary Sojourner and Other South African Stories (1989)
- Novels: The Persistence of Memory (2004)