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…

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Event in New York City

I am thrilled to be doing an event in New York City next week, on April 1st. The New America Foundation (“a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States”) invited me to talk about The Best Place on Earth, Mizrahi identity and Israeli contemporary literature at their snazzy Soho location. I get to talk with two fiercely intelligent women, internationally-published and acclaimed journalist Lisa Goldman who is the New America’s Israel-Palestine Initiative director (and whose blog I used to follow when she was a Canadian living…

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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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Pictures from my Events in Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa

Montreal
Montreal
Montreal
Montreal
Montreal
My dear friend, Marie, in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal
Atarah from The New Israel Fund in Montreal
With Tamara Kramer
Toronto
With Gabe Gonda in the Toronto Event
At the Gladstone in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto
Toronto
With Gabe Gonda
With Rabbi
The Raw Sugar Cafe in Ottawa
With Atarah in The Raw Sugar Cafe in Ottawa
In our hotel in Ottawa
in Ottawa
Signing books after the Ottawa event

Only a month (and a week) late! I finally got around to go through some of the photos from my events with the New Israel Fund of Canada in February. It was a pleasure to tour with the NIFCAN, and to speak in those different cities. The event in Toronto was at the Gladstone Hotel, and I was interviewed by Gabe Gonda of the Globe and Mail who asked some tough questions, including one that started with, “So there’s a lot of sex in the book,” (to which I replied with, “Yes. Yes, there is.”)  It was a great evening.…

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Glowing Review in The Ottawa Jewish Bulletin

A wonderful, well-written review of The Best Place on Earth appeared in The Ottawa Jewish Bulletin. Reviewer Mira Sucharov calls the book  “Smart, sexy and absorbing.” Sucahrov also says, “I didn’t want to put down The Best Place on Earth… but I frequently did. I wanted to savour each story, willing the book not to end. Though, when I did sometimes read straight from one story to the next, I realized how flawless is Tsabari’s ability to introduce us to a new set of characters with a new set of challenges. As soon as a new story has begun, the reader…

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Reading at the Wonderful Women Writers Series

I’m reading at the Wonderful Women Writers Series on February 27th, at 5:00pm with Elizabeth Ruth. The event is sponsored by the Centre for Women’s Studies in Education at OISE/University of Toronto and will be hosted by their current writer-in-residence, Dr. Nora Gold. The centre is (from their website) “committed to promoting, supporting, and enriching feminist work at OISE and UofT; and connecting scholarship, education, and activism through constructive and critical dialogues with feminist communities locally, nationally, and globally.” So it’s a great honour to be be invited to read at this series and to be paired with the lovely Elizabeth Ruth.…

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Letting Go of Books and Houses

José Saramago, Harper Lee, George Orwell and J.D. Salinger
Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Oh, how I loved this book!
Copies of my father's poetry book
Unreturned library books
Alice in Wonderland (also taken from the library)
A Ben Guryon biography perhaps?
In the back of Nissim's truck
A book by Rabindranath Tagore

Last week my mother and her partner moved to a new temporary home, leaving behind the house she had lived in for the past thirty years, the house my father had planned and built before he passed away. Sean, Baby and I moved with them, at least for the next few days before going back to Canada. I wrote the following post in December, when the idea that the house would soon be torn down didn’t fully sink in. Then I got busy—packing, cleaning, teaching workshops, visiting friends and family—and I never got around to publishing this. Now, one day…

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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…

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Two Workshops in Israel

I’m excited to be doing two writing workshops in Israel this month! As a Hebrew-speaking Israeli writer who writes in English I’m in a unique position. I still feel strongly and deeply connected to my Israeli identity, but I don’t really belong in the Israeli literary community. I’ve learned to accept it, and realized that I can be Israeli first and still be a Canadian writer, but a part of me—reminiscent of the young girl who grew up in Israel, wrote in Hebrew and dreamt of publishing a book— longs to be accepted in my country of birth. Since The…

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