Browsing CategoryFiction

Blog Tour!

  Theodora Armstrong, author of the wonderful short story collection Clear Skies, No Wind, 100% Visibility (which was nominated for the BC Book Prize) asked me to participate in a blog tour, and answer some questions about my writing and process. I’ve been a rotten blogger recently so I figured it would be a chance to post something new. (I have, however, been writing new material, which I am very excited about!) I met Theo at the Vancouver’s Writers Fest and we bonded over being short story writers (our collections were released within days of each other’s), photographers, and mothers. You…

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…

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…

Why I Choose to Only Read Books by Writers of Colour in 2014

When I came across, “Why I Only Read Books by Women in 2013,” by Lilit Marcus, I wished that I’d thought of it. The meme of listing ten books that made the most impact on us had just gone viral on Facebook and I was saddened by the number of lists dominated by white, male writers. When I wrote my own list on FB, I listed only books by women. Not because I wasn’t influenced by male writers. I was. Hugely. Chekov, and Garcia and Nabokov all blew my mind when I was growing up. But because everyone already listed…

A Holiday Story in Stylist Magazine

Stylist Magazine, based in the UK, asked me to write them a Christmas story. I had four days, and I was flying across the world on the day it was due. But of course I said yes. Because apparently I work well under pressure, and because it seemed like an opportunity not to be missed. I’m in great company, too. Authors Fay Weldon, Naomi Wood, Kate Griffin, Chibundu Onuzo and Jenny Colgan all contributed a story. And Stylist has a good track record with publishing short fiction: for their summer issue they had exclusive short stories by (wait for it)…

A Review in Publishers Weekly

The Best Place on Earth had another great review in Publishers Weekly. From their website: “Publishers Weekly, familiarly known in the book world as PW and ‘the bible of the book business,’ is a weekly news magazine focused on the international book publishing business.” Exciting! The review is short and sweet; apparently all PW reviews must be under a 100 words. Here’s a quote: “This short story collection is a fiction debut for Tsabari, but it demonstrates that she is already a talented storyteller. Her writing has an immediacy and power that invites readers into her characters’ psyches…  Tsabari’s characters will…

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…

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…

Story Published in Prairie Fire

Prairie Fire! I’m in it! My story, ‘The Poets in the Kitchen Window’ (from my      upcoming collection, The Best Place on Earth), takes place in Ramat Gan during the 91’ Gulf War, when Israel was under missile attack. I was seventeen back then, in my last year of high school. It was a scary and interesting and surreal time. There are other good reasons to read this issue: my good friend Nancy Jo Cullen, winner of awards and writer of fine poetry and prose, whose book of short stories, The Canary (Biblioasis), is coming out this spring, has one…

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…