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The Best Place on Earth wins the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature

With Evelyn Katz, Sami Rohr’s daughter
With Sean
With Sean
With my agents David Forrer and Kim Witherspoon
With the finalists, from left, Yelena Akhtiorskaya, Boris Fishman, Molly Antopol, and Kenneth Bonert (choice award winner)
Look at this big, goofy smile…
With the finalists, Yelena, Boris, Molly and Ken.
With my mom

Since I can’t seem to get my act together and write about how my life changed entirely over the past few weeks, since winning the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, I am posting some photos from the award ceremony. The gala took place in the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York on May 7, 2015. My mother flew in from Israel with one of my brothers, and my other brother came from Montreal. Sean’s aunt arrived from Vancouver and my agents, Kim Witherspoon and David Forrer (AKA miracle workers), were there too. The day before, on the way to the…

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My Year of Reading Only Writers of Colour

In the beginning of 2014 I made a public pledge to read only writers of colour for a year. My decision was inspired by Lilit Marcus’s essay, “Why I Only Read Books by Women in 2013,”  and by a lifetime of reading mostly works by white authors and not finding myself in the books that I read. In my original post I said many things about my decision but I think the last paragraph sums it pretty well. “I’m choosing to spend the year reading only books by writers of colour, because I want to read more deeply. Because as a…

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The Best Place on Earth is One Year Old!

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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Reviews, Interviews and Events (and Why I Love Book Bloggers)

Tickets for the Vancouver International Writers Festival have gone on sale today, and apparently some events are already sold out! Here are the links to my two events, Faces in the Conflict, with  Nadeem Aslam, Michael Winter, and D.W. Wilson (buy it here) and Out of Place, with  Xiaolu Guo and Silvia Moreno-Garcia (buy it here). More about how to buy tickets here. And here is a short video about the festival, just because.   ****  The Victoria Writers’ Festival has also started their ticket sale. I’m participating in two events; the first one is Love Familiar, readings and panel discussion with Dede Crane, Matt Rader, and Shaena Lambert.…

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