Browsing CategoryTeaching

Reading, teaching, and bragging about my amazing students

On November 12th I’ll be reading at the U of T’s Reading Series, The Platform, with some of my creative non-fiction students at the U of T School of Continuing Studies. They are a wonderful, talented group: Lina Barkas, Maisie Jacobson, Laura Sky, Tamara Jong, and Leonarda Carranza. Hopefully some of my other students will take advantage of the open mic portion of the night too. The reading will take place at The Social Capital Theatre in Toronto, 154 Danforth Ave – Second Floor,  at 7:30pm.  I have hosted a reading of my students before but this would be my first time…

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

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…

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…

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 at The University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Education

I am excited to be teaching a course at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Education this summer. The course is Introduction to Creative Non-Fiction; it begins on July 4th and will go over eight weeks. There are still some spaces left, so if you’re interested in Creative Non-Fiction you can sign up here.  I promise it’s going to be fun times!

The Writer‘s Studio Guide to Publishing in Literary Magazines and Entering Contests

I’ve been asked by a lot of people lately where they can find the The Writer‘s Studio Guide to Publishing in Literary Magazines and Entering Contests so I decided to repost it. The guide has been recommended by The New Quarterly Blog and  by The Canadian Writer’s Journal. Here’s the original post: When I was Wayde Compton’s mentor assistant in SFU’s Writer’s Studio I offered free consultations to students about how to submit to literary magazines. I figured I knew what I was talking about judging by the pile of rejection letters I’ve received. One student, to whom I showed my geeky, colour…

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…