Browsing CategoryLiterary Magazines

Cover girl and other news

Cover girl!

So, today I went to pick up the mail and was startled by the magazine I was holding, Jewish Book World, which had my face staring right back at me. And it’s big. Unphotoshoped, fucked-up tooth and frizzy hair big. Inside, there’s a lovely review of my book, a write-up about the award and my essay, “Keeping Promises.” *** More news. I wrote something in HEBREW!!! I know. It’s been so long that I was saddened to discover that I’ve now reversed my sense of insecurity to my mother tongue! It wasn’t easy to write this piece. My words felt…

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Writing about War

I haven’t been blogging. I have good reasons and bad reasons. The good reason is that I’ve spent the summer writing up a storm, working on my memoir. I was fortunate enough to receive a grant that made it possible: I rented a shared writing space outside my home, paid someone to help with childcare, and three times a week I go to my little office and write write write. It feels wonderful. On days when I don’t write, we enjoy summer in the city, spending time in parks and pools and patios. We also spent beautiful two weeks on…

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Some exciting news

My beautiful new writing space

Remember when I used to blog? What happened to that? Oh, right. I had a baby. And I work. And I write. Well, sometimes I do, though this past month has been all about grant applications and mentoring other writers (which is also great). June 15th is my day to get back to writing and I cannot wait! I do have several pieces of wonderful news to share: 1) The Best Place on Earth is going to be published  in Italian! The publisher is Nuova Editrice Berti, and they make beautiful books. Sono eccitato! 2) I (finally) signed with a literary agency!…

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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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Unravel the Tangle

My piece, “Unravel the Tangle,” which I wrote about my father and his poetry, was published in Room Magazine this month. After the essay about my mom (“Yemeni Soup and Other Recipes,” published in Grain) garnered so much attention last month, I was pleased to see the tribute to my father finally in print. I had wanted to write about my father for years, but wasn’t sure how. It felt too big, too raw, too difficult, even thirty years after his death. The title of the piece, Unravel the Tangle, is a line from one of my father’s poems. My…

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On Writing about My Mother and Winning a National Magazine Award

On Friday night, the night of the National Magazine Awards gala in Toronto, I was sitting at home in my PJ’s following the Twitter feed, waiting to hear if the piece I wrote about my mother, ‘Yemeni Soup and Other Recipes,’ won in the One of a Kind category. It was past my bedtime, because now that I’m a mother I can’t waste precious sleeping hours when my baby is sleeping. I kept refreshing the feed, looked at photos that other people tweeted showing beautiful people in glamorous outfits, read their tweets about a chocolate fountain, and imagined how much…

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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…

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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…

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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,…

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Granta 118 Launch in Tel Aviv

Yesterday I went to Granta magazine’s launch in Tel Aviv. When I first heard about it, it felt a little bit like worlds colliding. A few months ago I went to a Granta launch in Toronto; the issue then – Ten Years Later – featured a beautiful story by a friend, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, and the bookstore in which it was held, Type Books on Queen Street (my favourite bookstore in Toronto) was so packed that we had to stand at the top of the stairs, leaning against the door, and listen to the readers without actually seeing them. Kathryn wrote a…

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