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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Some Israeli Love

The print article from Haaretz
My favourite photo from the photo shoot for Haaretz. Photo by Noa Yaffe

I can’t keep track. Life has been moving fast, so wonderfully and strangely fast. I keep meaning to take the time to write but then I do laundry and make dinner and take care of a toddler instead. So here, quickly, are some links from the homeland. It has been so exciting for me to be recognized there finally, on the heels of the Sami Rohr Prize announcement. And even more exciting that it all happened while I was there. I loved this beautiful article in Haaretz (only for Hebrew speakers, I’m afraid), enjoyed speaking to the illustrious Ilene Prusher on TLV1 Radio, and this wonderfully written…

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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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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…

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Fall Recap

This has been the nicest, warmest fall I’ve yet to experienced in Ontario (and perhaps in my entire time Canada!) The weather has been warm and beautiful and though climate change is probably to blame I guiltily love every minute of it.  I actually enjoy fall in Toronto, even if it’s a gateway season to the horror that is winter (yes, I said horror and I stand behind it). It’s been five years since I moved here, and still, every year I am in awe of the changing fall colours, the vibrancy of the yellows and reds. They make the…

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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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Blog Tour – Guest post by Devyani Saltzman

This week I am hosting a guest blogger as part of the blog tour that has been going around. It is my first time ever. I’m pretty excited about it! Devyani Saltzman, author of Shooting Water, to whom I’d passed the baton last week, answers four questions about writing and speaks of her transition from literary nonfiction to fiction. Enjoy! *** I had the pleasure of meeting Ayelet at the National Festival Director’s social at Harbourfront Centre. The night was winding down and a group of wonderful writers, including Ayelet, Martha Baillie and Alissa York, shared a beer and caught…

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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…

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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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