“Disappearance/Muteness”—Tales from a Life in Translation
A writer born into both Arabic and Hebrew linguistic traditions finds herself writing in English but longing for Arabic.
Ayelet Tsabari
Canadian, Israeli and Yemeni, Ayelet Tsabari is the author of the award-winning memoir in essays The Art of Leaving. She co-edited with Leonarda Carranza and Eufemia Fantetti the anthology Tongues, On Longing and Belonging through Language. Her first book in English was a collection of stories, The Best Place on Earth, which was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice that was nominated for The Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, published internationally to great acclaim. Ayelet Tsabari was born in Israel to a large family of Yemeni descent. She studied film and photography in Capilano University’s Media Program in Vancouver, where she directed two documentary films, one of which won an award at the Palm Spring International Short Film Festival. She wrote her first story in English in 2006. A graduate of Simon Fraser University’s Writer’s Studio and the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph, Ayelet teaches at the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph, at University of King’s College’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction, and The Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Track in Creative Writing in Bar Ilan University.