Olga Zilberbourg's Blog, page 12
October 3, 2019
Review of Like Water
I love that this reviewer pointed out “Ada.” It’s an important story for me, and I deeply care for the character, but I never did find a home for it in a lit mag. It’s so great to see Ada hold her own in the collection.
“My favorite story, “Ada at Twelve and a Half,” felt
of these the most utterly specific and intensely imagined, the kind of
story that reads not like a fiction but a detailed reporting of an
actual event, the log of an inner life. It’s about a little girl who
wishes she didn’t have to go to school–who wants so much to walk past it
to anywhere, anything must be better than this, she wants so much to be
someone, somewhere different–but she ends up in her classroom “where
she will sit, trying, and failing, to accept the ordinary.”
September 10, 2019
Book news
LIKE WATER AND OTHER STORIES is officially out now and available for purchase from WTAW Press. It’s also available on Amazon.
I’m delighted with the reception the book has had so far, including this review in the Moscow Times.
The launch party in Sausalito is this Thursday, September 12. If you’re local, I’d love to see you. Studio 333, 7 pm.
Here’s a list of a few more upcoming book events (and more are to come):
September 16, 7:30 pm: San Francisco, The Bindery — a reading with Flash Fiction Collective
October 5, 7 pm: Oakland, Wolfman Books — a reading and conversation with Nancy Au
October 7, 6:30 pm: San Francisco, Folio Books — a reading with the Odd Mondays series
October 13, 1 pm: San Francisco, Writers’ Studio, 195 De Haro Street — The Art of the Short Story panel at Litquake
October 19, 6:30 pm: San Francisco, Third Haus, 455 Valencia St. — WTAW Press reading at Lit Crawl
November 3, 6 pm: New York City, Bowery Club — a reading with Why There Are Words NYC
November 9, 7 pm: Rochester, New York, Java’s Cafe — a reading and conversation with Olga Livshin and Dmitri Manin
December 14, 7 pm: San Francisco, CA, The Make-Out Room — Writers with Drinks
December 26, 7 pm: San Francisco, CA, Martuni’s — Literary Speakeasy
September 8, 2019
Event Announcement: Two Olgas and One Genrikh: Russian Poems, Stories, & Shirts
When: Saturday, November 9, 2019 at 7 PM – 10 PM EST
Where: Java’s Cafe, 16 Gibbs St, Rochester, New York 14604
Join us for a lively evening of stories, poems, and performance art by nonconformist writers from the former Soviet Union, in English.
Olga Livshin‘s book A LIFE REPLACED braids together poems on immigration in America with translations from Anna Akhmatova and our contemporary Vladimir Gandelsman, winner of Russia’s highest award for poetry, the Moscow Reckoning. Many poems are responses to these two voices; some are stand-alone works. Maggie Smith comments: “Livshin, who immigrated to the US from Russia as a child, acknowledges the two Americas she knows firsthand: the one that fears and demonizes, and the one that welcomes. A LIFE REPLACED is astonishingly beautiful, intelligent, and important.”
A graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, Olga Zilberbourg will introduce her English-language short story collection LIKE WATER AND…
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September 6, 2019
Did the Russian Wizard of Oz Subvert Soviet Propaganda?
I wrote for LitHub about one of my favorite books growing up.
Volkov’s Kansas is populated by poor farmers, but despite of it—or, in fact, because of it—it’s a friendly place. Volkov leans on the political ideas of the Communist International (Comintern) movement, particularly popular before in the 1930s Stalin began executing its members. Comintern was officially disbanded during World War II, but some of its ideals were allowed to live on. As children, we were taught to believe that all poor people of the world were united in their strife against the wealthy bourgeois exploiters, whether these poor people lived in Kansas or in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, where Volkov was born. From her house, Ellie can see the houses of her equally poor farmer neighbors; they are her friends who play with her and share with her the little they have. To us young readers, Kansas seemed in fact so wonderful that even in the middle of Cold War, we dreamed of going there as though it itself was the Magic Land.
Barrelhouse Reviews: Like Water by Olga Zilberbourg
Like Water contains 52 stories of varying length. Stories should be enjoyed one per sitting, with time to savor after each. Many of them contain layered perspectives, and Zilberbourg focuses particularly on communication in its moment of breakdown. Those moments benefit from unfolding time. “Rubicon” opens the collection, setting the pace–fast, active reading time with extended mental work–and a magical vibe. Characters experience time slips and revisit decisions that mark moments of no return.
Read the rest of this review by Alissa Gillon on Barrelhouse Magazine.
August 27, 2019
Review of LIKE WATER in the Moscow Times
I’m tremendously grateful to writer Anna Kasradze and editor Michele Berdy of The Moscow Times for publishing a thoughtful review of my upcoming English-language debut.
The thread connecting these tales is each protagonist’s attempt to come to terms with an identity that is always in flux, transitioning between various contexts such as emigration, motherhood, partnership, and employment. For this reason, bicultural readers of varied backgrounds will likely hear their own experiences resonating with this collection. Together, the 52 stories of “Like Water and Other Stories” offer shards of spacetime and leave the reader to piece them together. This format consistently frustrates the reader’s search for one big takeaway or one favorite character, but it allows the reader to experience alongside the characters their struggle for takeaways and coherent selves.
August 14, 2019
Book Events
The publication date for my debut English-language book LIKE WATER AND OTHER STORIES is approaching on September 5. If you are in the Bay Area, please come to the book party on September 12, 7 pm at Studio 333, Sausalito, CA. We will be celebrating my book together with Anita Felicelli’s novel CHIMERICA. Peg Alford Pursell, our publisher and the author of A GIRL GOES INTO THE FOREST, will host the event that will include a reading, a conversation, wine and cake.
I’m particularly delighted that, as a part of my book tour, I’ll be able to return to Rochester, New York, where I first landed when I came to the US in 1996. I look forward to visiting RIT and catching up with old friends as a part of this adventure. My Rochester event is scheduled for November 9th, 7:30 pm at Java’s in downtown Rochester — more information about that soon.
Below are two more upcoming Bay Area readings. More events are in the works, and I will update you as the book tour comes together!
On October 5 at 7 pm, I will be in conversation with Nancy Au, author of SPIDER LOVE SONG AND OTHER STORIES, at E.M. Wolfman General Interest Small Bookstore, Oakland, CA
On October 7 at 7 pm, I will participate in Odd Mondays reading series at Folio Books, San Francisco, CA
Thank you for all of you who have pre-ordered my book — you should be receiving it soon. If you’d like to pre-order your copy of LIKE WATER AND OTHER STORIES, you can do it here.
