Your Presence is Mandatory reading and conversation with Steven Saum at Booksmith in San Francisco. I’ll be signing books!
I’ll be talking about the book with Michael David Lukas in the gorgeous Mill Valley Public Library, set inside a redwood forest!
I’ll be in conversation with Olga Zilberbourg, author of Like Water and Other Stories at Telegraph Hill Books.
Seattle friends, come by Elliott Bay Books for my conversation with Tara Conklin and book signing. More info on https://www.elliottbaybook.com/events/20240529
I’ll be discussing Your Presence is Mandatory with Susanne Pari, an Iranian-American author of In the Time of Our History. Book signing to follow!
I’ll be reading from Your Presence is Mandatory and answering questions in Russian & English at Globus Books.
I’ll be talking with my good friend author Lee Kravetz about Your Presence is Mandatory in lovely Montclaire!
Come to legendary quarterly reading series, Babylon Salon, to hear from several local writers.
I’ll be talking about Your Presence is Mandatory in a virtual event at the Jewish Community Library.
Please join the Barnard College Slavic Department and the Harriman Institute for an author talk with journalist and novelist Sasha Vasilyuk. Moderated by John Wright.
Your Presence is Mandatory NYC launch reading & afterparty for friends. Please RSVP on
LA friends, come meet me at the LAT Book Festival. I’ll be on a panel Looking Back to See Forward: Contemporary Historical Fiction with Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, Melissa Ann Chadburn, Crystal Hana Kim, and Myriam J. A. Chancy. Full schedule.
I’ll be reading along with SF Writers Grotto members at the inaugural Lit Crawl Sebastopol. Join us for “Around the World” with Caroline Paul, Grace Loh Prasad, Sabina Khan-Ibarra, Eirinee Carson. Full Lit Crawl schedule on https://litcrawlsebastopol2024.sched.com/
I’ll be in conversation with the New York Times bestselling author Tara Conklin about her new novel Community Board (HarperCollins, April 2), a wise, timely, big-hearted novel of unplanned isolation and newly forged community. Hosted by Black Bird Bookstore & Cafe in San Francisco.
I’ll be leading a panel on Writing Your Way Through a Major World Event, along with writers Katya Apekina, Jasmin Iolani Hakes, Cecilia Rabess, and Lena Zycinsky.
How does a writer walk the tightrope between story and history when tackling a major world event, historical or contemporary? How do they make it their own? Four novelists and a poet discuss their unique approaches to describing Hawaii's colonization, the Russian Revolution, World War II, the 2016 election, and the current war in Ukraine. From balancing fact and fiction to creating a narrative that feels fresh, we will share our experiences whipping reality into a literary shape.
Join novelists, poets, and journalists born in the former USSR as they share work influenced by the war in Ukraine. Through poignant fiction and nonfiction, experience the nuanced exploration of resilience, identity, and the human spirit amidst turmoil. Free or donation. Register on https://www.irckc.org/what-we-do/irc-events-calendar/#id=10692&cid=1742&wid=2201
Katya Apekina | Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry | Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach | Maria Kuznetsova | Luisa Muradyan | Sasha Vasilyuk | Vlada Teper | Lena Zycinsky
I’ll be reading from Your Presence is Mandatory along the author of the fabulous new historical fiction novel, The Bullet Swallower, Elizabeth Gonzalez James. We’ll also be joined by Ghassan Zeineddine, author of Dearborn.
Five prize-winning authors will lead a discussion on crafting autobiographical novels/stories versus memoirs/personal essays. They will talk about the differences and similarities between fiction and nonfiction, what determines a writer’s initial narrative choice, and the challenges writers encounter while writing from their own experiences about cultural heritage, trauma, disability, violence, and sexual abuse. Featuring: Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry, Jeffrey Dale Lofton, William Mark Habeeb, Chris Dennis
I’ll be in conversation with novelist Elizabeth Gonzalez James about her buzzy novel THE BULLET SWALLOWER, a dazzling magical realism western in the vein of Cormac McCarthy meets Gabriel García Márquez. Book signing at Book Passage Corte Madera to follow!
Poesia Cafe is hosting a group reading of SF Bay Area authors on the themes of food, drink, and my favorite country - Italy! My co-readers include Michael Alenyikov, Richard May, Olga Zilberbourg, and Anna Mantzaris.
I’ll be reading at The Racket Reading Series, guest hosted by Tomas Moniz. The evening’s theme is Pop Song, so it should be a rocking good time!
I’ll be reading at Must Love Memoir, a NYC-based reading series dedicated to creative nonfiction. Please join me to hear from Emi Nietfeld, Elizabeth Owuor, Dionne Ford, and Elissa Bassist.
I’ll be at Mill Valley Public Library chatting with Gail Tsukiyama, the beloved bestselling author of The Color of Air, Women of the Silk, and The Samurai's Garden, about her newest novel, The Brightest Star , based on the life of groundbreaking actress Anna May Wong—the first and only Asian American woman to gain movie stardom in the early days of Hollywood.
I’ll be in conversation with Rita Chang-Eppig about her debut novel “Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea” on Zoom at the San Mateo County Libraries. A Good Morning America Buzz Pick, Rita’s novel of a Chinese pirate queen is a literary stunner.
Sasha will be in conversation with Katya Cengel, a journalist and author of “From Chernobyl With Love: Reporting from the Ruins of the Soviet Union”.
We’ll talk about Ukraine war, the USSR, and how on earth one falls in love in Chernobyl. From contraband orthodontic retainers to jailed dissidents, the conversation is guaranteed to be lively - and devastating.
For this Bay Area Book Festival Prologue event, writers and journalists who've lived and worked in Ukraine, Russia, and Moldova join prominent Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov in sharing work that relates to the war in Ukraine.
Andrey Kurkov will be joined by Bay Area writers Katya Cengel, Evgeniya Dame, Maggie Levantovskaya, Masha Rumer, Vlada Teper, Sasha Vasilyuk, and Olga Zilberbourg.
Featuring writers from across the post-Soviet space, Voices for Ukraine is a reading and fundraiser in solidarity with and support of Ukraine. It will take place at Folio: Seattle Athenaeum in Seattle, WA.
Hosted by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, readers include poets, writers, and translators: llya Kaminsky, Katie Farris, Olga Livshin, Olena Jennings, Ali Kinsella, Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry, Rimma Kranet, Grace Mahoney, Sasha Senderovich, Ekaterina Suvorova, Sasha Vasilyuk, Olga Zilberbourg, & more.
Proceeds from the event will go to Ukraine TrustChain, an all volunteer-run nonprofit started by Ukrainian immigrants in the U.S.
Five writers from Ukraine, Russia, the Baltics and other former Soviet republics stage a response to the war in Ukraine and the traumas of a totalitarian upbringing it has reawakened. In reading from our fiction, poetry, memoir and journalism work, we present a deeper view of the region and offer textural solutions to making the political personal.
As the war in Ukraine approaches its one-year mark, come hear readings from authors born in Ukraine, Russia and Moldova as they share their thoughts on the tumultuous region. The line-up features Julia Alekseyeva, Katya Apekina, Inna Effress, Yelena Furman, Rimma Kranet, Ruth Madievsky, and Sasha Vasilyuk.
RSVP on https://bit.ly/embattledhomeland.
I will read from my forthcoming novel, Your Presence Is Mandatory.
Join me and five other writers from the former USSR as we read from our fiction and nonfiction.
Readings by Sasha Vasilyuk, Masha Rumer, Yelena Furman, Olga Zilberbourg. Maggie Levantovskaya, Vlada Teper, and Tatyana Sundeeva, all immigrant writers born in the USSR.
