An Honorable Mention in Zoetrope: All-Story's 2022 Short Fiction Competition

I was thrilled to learn this week that my story, “The Tayyare Apartments,” was honored by juror Ling Ma and received an Honorable Mention in this year’s Zoetrope: All-Story short fiction competition. The publication is one I love—I’ve admired so many of the stories there and I’m very grateful to be included.

The story is part of my in-progress novel-in-stories, After the Levantines, a generational portrait that moves between Istanbul, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles. “The Tayyare Apartments,” centers on the eldest American-born son, Davud Almasi, who at eleven is taken out of school when the family visits relations in Istanbul—their first chance to do so after the travel ban of World War Two has been lifted.

Here’s the opening:

The Almasis took a taxi to the Peyircis’ by way of the bridge in Galata. Davud prepared himself for something grand, a crossing on the order of the Brooklyn Bridge or the George Washington. An imposing rise to the span, the majesty of the suspension towers, cables flexed against the sky. But when they reached the waterfront, the bridge was hardly a bridge at all. The Galata Bridge no more than grazed the water and at mid-span its elevation barely cleared the ferries that trawled the strait. It was October, their first visit to Istanbul since the war, ten days into an interminable six-week stay. No one spoke. He sat wedged between his brother, Malek, and his mother, who held the baby, Naj, on her lap. His father, poised astride the jump seat, stared into the distance behind them. Propped on Davud’s knees, his sole connection to home, Sword of Sovereigns and the latest issue of Human Torch, wrapped for safekeeping in a sheet of his grandfather’s newspaper. The adults had promised him a bridge, but Galata was a disappointment, and like everything in Istanbul was second-rate compared to Brooklyn.

Wisdom from George Saunders

While I try to keep what lands in the inbox to a minimum (ha!), dispatches like this, from George Saunders’ newsletter, are well worth the extra emails (and definitely worth the subscription price). For those grappling with one of the many dubious points in the creative process, here he is on that topic from a recent post:

The biggest thing I’ve learned over the years has to do with where to look for satisfaction in writing. There’s a very samsara-esque quality to this endeavor (well, to all endeavors, but). That is, there’s a predictable & cyclic quality to it all, that goes like this (and I’m sure this will be familiar to many of you): First, the feeling that I’ve got no ideas, and despair over that (“I’ve lost it! I’m finished!”). Then, an idea comes, or at least a place to start. Is it good? Months of work to find out, and: Yes, it is, or could be. Work, work, work. Finally I finish it, feeling good. Send it out. Maybe it’s accepted. Yay, it is! Ugh, I hope I don’t mess up the edits. But no: the editing process goes great. And now the story is coming out! Will people like it? Some do. Hooray! But wait: I’ve got no ideas.

Then it all starts over again, over and over, until I die at 120, busily enacting one of those phases described above.

So, there’s actually no settled place of fulfillment. And maybe that’s as it should be. What’s happened over the years is that, aware of the above, I’ve gotten marginally better at being content/happy during any/all of those phases, kind of like, “Oh, I’m in that phase now. That’s fun.” It’s still frustrating, scary, sometimes euphoric…but less so, or more controllably so - I can be in a certain phase of the creative process, struggling to move out of it, even as I’m looking over at myself struggling, slightly amused by the whole thing.

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See you at #AWP23 in Seattle!

I’m very excited to be part of this amazing panel accepted for #AWP23 conference next March in Seattle, “Insiders and Outsiders: Following, Bending, and Breaking Literary Traditions,” with these brilliant writers, Karen Tei Yamashita, Thais Miller, Toni Jensen, and Sandra Marchetti, when we’ll discuss literary heritage, cultural connectedness, and canons. Here’s our panel description:

Writers often draw from multiple literary heritages, navigating diverse literary customs. Working within a set cultural tradition can offer connectedness and coherence, however, literary canons have also been consistently used to exclude many bodies. How do writers of intersectional identity work within, bend, and break set traditions? Writers of multiple genres who directly engage with diverse cultural traditions discuss their influences and strategies for wrestling with literary legacies.

I’m looking forward to the conversation! For those not familiar, AWP, or the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, founded in 1967, provides community, opportunities, ideas, news, and advocacy for writers and teachers of writing, A nonprofit literary organization, AWP also holds an annual conference serving college and university creative writing programs, and established and emerging writers.

If you’ll be presenting, or attending, drop your information in the comments!

Thank you First Pages Prize!

I’m thrilled to have the opening pages of my novel-in-progress, After the Levantines, selected for a 2022 First Pages Prize by Justin Torres. The recognition comes at a time when I’m deep in a revision of the draft, which began as a story collection in 2018. I’m very grateful to the committee and to Justin Torres, for the recognition and support of this project. Learn more about the First Page Prize, and all the prizewinners here.

My essay for the CBC's August selection, on The Wrong End of the Telescope, by Rabih Alameddine

Alameddine’s sixth book, which earlier this year won the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction, is an extraordinary chronicle of the refugees who were forced to flee after the Syrian civil war began in 2011, the humanitarian crisis that grew more tragic by the year, and the struggles of the volunteers who work to stabilize their lives. By 2015, over a million migrants and asylum seekers, fleeing wars in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, sought asylum in Europe, arriving by raft on the Greek island of Lesbos. The book is also a critique of the global divide between passive observers and displaced people, and how, in a world that is ever smaller, those in stable democracies have become numb to the oppression of hostile governments and violent militias. I was honored to write about the novel for Alta Journal’s California Book Club, and being a fan of Alameddine’s books, was excited to delve into the novel’s striking visual style, and precise, atmospheric detail (Alameddine is also an accomplished painter). You can see Rabih Alameddine in conversation with CBC host John Freeman and special guest Aleksandar Hemon, on August 18 at 5 p.m. Full details follow the essay, which you can read here.

My essay on David Hockney appears in World Literature Today

My essay, “Deconstructing Celia” appears in the just-released May issue of World Literature Today. I wrote about David Hockney (and his 1980 book, Pictures), the search for form and subject during my years as a young art student, and finding my way through a painter's vocabulary. The issue, subtitled Muse: Writers, Artists, and Their Inspiration, features essays, poetry, and interviews, and includes work by an international roster of writers. World Literature Today is the University of Oklahoma's award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, and a digital subscription is affordable! Learn more here.