I woke up today ready to celebrate the 1st birthday of my book, but when I checked the news, I saw that while I slept, there was a horrible Russian bombardment of Ukraine. And it just reminded me of how, when I began writing the book in 2017, then when I found a publisher in 2022, and then when my book came out in 2024, each time I kept hoping that peace was near… And yet, here we are.
Sorry to be a downer, but I think it’s easy to look away from a war that’s far away and that’s been going on for so long. The problem is that it won’t disappear just because we don’t look.
And now, to the original, less somber part of my post:
Your Presence Is Mandatory came out in April 2024 and as I reflect on the past year, I realize how much it’s given me. I did 50 events, gave a ton of interviews explaining complex historical and geopolitical issues, and met hundreds of readers, many of whom shared the stories of silence in their own families. I also just learned that I’m a finalist for the California Book Award. All in all, this has been an incredibly humbling experience.
In a way, I’m ready to move on to next projects. But I’m not sure the book is quite done with me yet. And maybe that’s the point. After all, books are supposed to outlive us. In November, my publisher will release the paperback edition and I might do more things around that. I just hope - once again - that by then, peace in Ukraine will be either reality or an actual possibility, and that authoritarian tendencies sweeping our country won’t reach their full force.
Publications
I interviewed author Boris Fishman about The Unwanted, his latest novel about a family fleeing an unnamed country ravaged by war for the Los Angeles Review of Books. Fishman was the second Soviet-born American writer I’ve read (the first was Gary Shteyngart), so I was very curious to ask him about how writing changes throughout an author’s career as well as about his own refugee experience as part of the late-1980s USSR-Vienna-Italy path that so many friends of mine took as kids.
I wrote an op-ed for Time Magazine called “80 Years Later, Both Trump and Putin Brand WWII a Victory”
Upcoming events
If you’re in the Bay Area in May, I’d like to invite you to a few awesome literary events. There are a lot to choose from and - best of all - they all feature interesting writers and not just me :)
Jewish Arts & Bookfest | Sunday, May 4 @ 1PM | Berkeley. I’ll be on a panel with Olga Zilberbourg, Margarita Meklina, Tatyana Sundeyeva talking about growing up on a diet of Russian lit.
Talk with Jon Hickey on “Big Chief” | Wed, May 14 @ 6:30PM | Mill Valley Library. I’ll talk to Jon about his gripping literary debut about power and corruption, family and belonging, set on a reservation.
Sebastopol Litcrawl | Sat, May 17 @2PM | Travel through time with a few of my favorite local authors: Lee Kravetz, Michael David Lukas, Joy Lanzendorfer and Kirsten Menger-Anderson.
Bay Area Book Fest | June 1 @ 11:15 | Berkeley. “Fiction Debuts Navigating Historical Memory” is the panel I’ll be on along with Sam Sax, Rickey Fayne, and Betty Shamieh.
What I’m reading:
Fiction: The Unwanted by Boris Fishman about a family is running away from an unnamed country ravaged by civil war. Big Chief by Jon Hickey, a political thriller set on a reservation.
Nonfiction: Refugees are clearly on my mind because I’m checking out journalist Jeanne Carstensen’s A Greek Tragedy about the 2015 shipwreck off the Greek coast as well as Displaced by journalist Valery Panyushkin about civilians affected by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Next reads: Jacqueline Doyle’s flash chapbook The Missing Girl; Alka Joshi’s brand new Six Days in Bombay; and Endling by Maria Reva (forthcoming in June)
Hope you’re well despite it all!
xoxo Sasha