Browsing CategoryMedia

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…

Continue Reading

Writer in Residence, New York, Podcast, Interviews, Readings…

My writer-in-residence office at Crescent School

It’s a busy busy time. Sean went to work full time, which means I have to juggle momming and writing and teaching and promoting. It’s been crazy. So here’s a quick recap of some new and exciting things that are happening. I am now (and for the next three weeks) the writer in residence at Crescent School in Toronto, working with high school students on their independent study projects for their Writers’ Craft class. The students are wonderful, and I have a little office with some view where I write with no interruptions. It’s pretty great. My event at the…

Continue Reading

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…

Continue Reading

CBC The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers

I am so excited to be on this week’s Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers on CBC. I recorded the short segment the morning after my launch, which meant that I could hardly sleep that night. Not only was I  still buzzing from the amazing evening, I also had a case of ESL anxiety, which comes over me sometimes when I need to answer questions on the spot. I worry that my grammar will fail me, my vocabulary will abandon me, I’ll forget how to speak English and end up sounding inarticulate in a distinctly non-writerly way. Of course, as often…

Continue Reading

Book Birthday Week

My book and I had quite a week last week. Last Tuesday, March 19th, was my book birthday, the official publishing date I’ve been waiting over a year for. I went swimming that morning, a form of meditation, a way to calm down the swimming in my head. It helped. Then Sean and I visited two Book City stores and checked out my books on the display table, got to sign them and pose with them and smell them (I keep sniffing them; it’s becoming a problem). Then we went to Chapters, where Sean rearranged a table to give my…

Continue Reading

Review in the Globe and Mail

I woke up yesterday to find this picture on Facebook, posted by a classmate from the MFA. My first review! The reviewer refers to The Best Place on Earth as a notable debut this season, along with two buzzing novels: Taiye Selasi’s Ghana Must Go and The Lion Seeker by Kenneth Bonert. Great company! Here is a quote, “Issues of assimilation and belonging are a theme in contemporary literature, but they are approached here in specific ways that both trouble the underlying cultural conversations and tell moving stories.” Then I also received simultaneous messages (literally, at the same minute) from another classmate who works at Book City in Toronto and my in-laws…

Continue Reading

On Being Interviewed

I was interviewed several times these past few months. It’s been an interesting experience, being on the other end of the recording device.  Especially since for many years I was the one asking the questions. I started writing for magazines when I was fifteen (which probably had something to do with my poor performance and attendance in school) and continued after my army service. As a teenager, it gave me confidence and direction. It also enriched my life, allowing me to attend events and festivals I could have never afford financially. I was once sent to write about a diving…

Continue Reading

Writers to Watch – Hmmm… Aren’t We Forgetting Somebody?

The lovely Amanda Leduc included me on her list of Canadian Up-and-Coming Writers to Watch, which she wrote in response to other, more recognized lists, like the ones put up by CBC Books and the Globe and Mail. Amanda’s list was dedicated to writers who have yet to publish their first book, and it listed some amazing writers I know (through Twitter and literary magazines) like Kris Bertin, Alex Leslie, Will Johnson, Erin Frances Fisher and Trevor Corkum, and others I didn’t know like Braydon Beaulieu, Cody Klippenstein and Marjorie Celona. I was proud and honoured to be on it,…

Continue Reading

Interview with Shalom Life

  I had a smooth landing in Toronto, and though it didn’t really make my goodbyes any easier or less sad, I am happy to be home. My Pivot reading went well: Sandra Ridley and Rebecca Rosenblum both gave fantastic readings, and I finally got to meet my new best friend whom I met on Twitter recently, fabulous fiction writer and avid blogger Amanda Leduc who shares my book-birthday-season: her novel will be coming out with ECW in Spring 2013! I also had my first official interview the other day and it’s already up on ShalomLife.com. I think I managed…

Continue Reading

Speakeasy Featured in Open Book Toronto

Open Book Toronto recently published an article about Speakeasy, the reading series Eufemia and I founded and host, calling it “A chattery, fist-pounding, pint-guzzling good time.” The lovely piece was written by Stacey Madden, who graduated from the program last year. Here’s an excerpt: “There’s a new reading series on the scene — Speakeasy, brought to you by Ayelet Tsabari and Eufemia Fantetti of the Creative Writing MFA program at the University of Guelph. Hosted by the Magpie Tavern at 831 Dundas Street West in Toronto, Speakeasy is a monthly event in which MFA students, instructors and alumni alike can showcase their work.…

Continue Reading