How could it have been a year already? The Best Place on Earth is one year old today! I remember that this day last year was just as gloomy and miserable as today is. I remember feeling anxious and a little bit crazy and not as joyous as I had wanted to feel (that elated feeling came the following day, at my launch, which was hands down the best party I ever had) I remember that that morning I struggled to zip up my parka, which was starting to feel pretty tight on my hugely pregnant belly. I also remember…
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Mini-Tour in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa and Other News
Exciting news! I’m going on another mini-tour on the first week of February. I will be reading from The Best Place on Earth and speaking about my experience as an Israeli of Yemeni descent and about writing Mizrahi stories. There will also be some time for a Q & A and books for sale. Oh, and did I mention that it will take place in licensed venues? So you can have a glass of wine and a snack with it? The event is called “Say it Again, Say Something else,” after one of the stories in the book. New Israel…
Two Workshops in Israel
I’m excited to be doing two writing workshops in Israel this month! As a Hebrew-speaking Israeli writer who writes in English I’m in a unique position. I still feel strongly and deeply connected to my Israeli identity, but I don’t really belong in the Israeli literary community. I’ve learned to accept it, and realized that I can be Israeli first and still be a Canadian writer, but a part of me—reminiscent of the young girl who grew up in Israel, wrote in Hebrew and dreamt of publishing a book— longs to be accepted in my country of birth. Since The…
My West Coast Mini Book Tour
I’m thrilled to be heading to Vancouver and Victoria for a mini-book tour in a few days. Vancouver is one of my homes (I’ve written about it here). I lived there for eleven years and I still miss it. When I got my book deal I promised my friends in the city that I’d fly there to launch my book after I do my Toronto Launch. But then I ended up having a baby instead. The Best Place on Earth is now six months old, a little old for a launch, but I still wanted to celebrate it with my…
Writing Workshop in Vancouver: Wish You Were Here
I am running a writing workshop, ‘Wish You Were Here: Writing about Place‘, in Vancouver this fall. I am very excited about it. It will take place at the lovely Trout Lake Community Centre (one of my favourite spots in East Vancouver!) Here’s more information from the flyer: Evoking a profound sense of “being there” in writing is one of the most important elements of prose, and a way of immersing the reader in what John Gardner called “the fictional dream”. Mastery of place involves more than just using descriptive words. Vivid setting emerges as much from the character’s point…
Teaching Creative Non Fiction at the University of Toronto
I’m teaching both Introduction to Creative Nonfiction and an Advanced Creative Nonfiction workshop at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies this summer. I’m really excited about it! The introduction course invites you to explore what it is you want and need to say, and it helps you find an immediate, noteworthy, compelling and perhaps provocative form for expressing it. The advanced course is an intensive workshop for writers with a memoir, personal essay, lyric essay, travel story or biography in progress. With the help of constructive criticism and support from your peers, you will have the opportunity to refine a work-in-progress and to…
Two Upcoming Workshops (also: Two Upcoming Publications!)
I teaching two writing workshops this winter. The first one, Creative Writing through Reading, is a part of the University of Guelph‘s brand new Creative Writing Certificate, in which I am extremely honoured to be teaching. It actually takes place in the gorgeous Guelph campus (Greyhound, here I come!) The second one is Introduction to Creative Non-Fiction, which I will be teaching at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Education. I had so much fun teaching it this summer so I’m looking forward to doing it again. I updated my Workshops and Manuscript Consultation page so you can read more about these exciting opportunities. Hope…
Teaching a Fiction Workshop at CanWrite
I’m excited to be teaching a fiction workshop next weekend (May 17th to 21st, 2012) as a part of the Canadian Authors Association’s Conference that will be taking place in Orillia. The workshop is titled: The Rules of Fiction (and How to Break Them), and it’s a topic that is close to my heart. I have a complicated relationship with rules (any rules, really, but fiction rules in particular) and last year I wrote an essay about my journey with the rules of fiction for my MFA plenary course. Maybe I’ll post excerpts from it here one day…. Here’s the…