Author: Olga Zilberbourg

Olga Zilberbourg’s English-language debut LIKE WATER AND OTHER STORIES (WTAW Press) explores “bicultural identity hilariously, poignantly,” according to The Moscow Times. It also dives into topics of bisexuality and immigrant parenthood. Anthony Marra called it “…a book of succinct abundance, dazzling in its particulars, expansive in its scope,” and Karen Bender said, “Olga Zilberbourg is a writer to read right now.” Zilberbourg’s writing has appeared in World Literature Today, The Believer, Electric Literature, Lit Hub, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. Born in Leningrad, USSR in a Russian-speaking Jewish family, she makes her home in San Francisco, California. She has published four collections of stories in Russia, including most recent Задержи дыхание [Hold Your Breath] from Vremya Press. She serves as a consulting editor at Narrative Magazine and as a co-facilitator of the San Francisco Writers Workshop. Together with Yelena Furman, she has co-founded Punctured Lines, a feminist blog about literature from the former Soviet Union. She is currently at work on her first novel.

Honey in the Wound

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ Leave a comment

by Jiyoung Han

Young-Ja infuses food with her emotions. She revels in her gift for cooking, nourishing the people she loves with her cheerfulness. But her sunny childhood comes to an end in 1931 when Japanese soldiers crush her family’s defiance against the Empire. Young-Ja is cast adrift, her food turning increasingly bitter with grief. When a Korean rebel fighter notices her talents, however, she is whisked off to Manchuria to join a secretive sisterhood of beautiful teahouse spies. There, Young-Ja finds a new sense of belonging and starts using her abilities for the resistance. But the Imperial Army is not yet finished with her…

As an unforgettable family perseveres in the long shadow of colonialism, Honey in the Wound transports readers to mountain forests where tiger-girls stalk, to Manchurian teahouses and opium dens where charming smiles veil secrets, and to the modern metropolises of Tokyo and Seoul where restless ghosts stir. This debut novel is a tender yet powerful multi-generational drama that shines light onto the twentieth century’s darkest corners and gives voice to those who bore witness.

Published by Avid Reader Press. Purchase on Bookshop or at your favorite local bookstore!

The House of Found Objects

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ Leave a comment

by Jo Beckett-King

Twelve-year-old Bea from Passaic, New Jersey, is visiting her family in Paris for the summer when her grandmother’s most precious heirloom—a drawing by Henri Matisse—goes missing. After a cryptic clue arrives on Bea’s doorstep suggesting its whereabouts, Bea is determined to pursue the lead.

Without the French skills to navigate her way around the landmarks of Paris, she teams up with her cousin, Céline, whose clear-eyed French directness makes her a perfect partner for curious, problem-solving Bea. The girls embark on a city-wide search, deciphering riddles, solving puzzles, and cracking codes as they try to locate the Matisse, find a thief, and identify their mysterious benefactor.

Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Order on Bookshop or Amazon. Don’t forget to rate and review!

Truther Narratives

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ Leave a comment

by Tamim Ansary

The latest book by Tamim Ansary, former moderator and beloved leader of the San Francisco Writers Workshop, TRUTHER NARRATIVES: CONSPIRACY THEORY EXPLAINED. WHAT IT IS, HOW IT FORMS, WHY IT SPREADS is a long-form essay which uses conspiracy theory as a lens for looking at a larger issue—the way narrative shapes our experience of social reality and how this impacts and is impacted by culture and history. 

It begins by asking a simple question: what do we mean by conspiracy theory? How does this type of story differ from narratives about real conspiracies (which after all do occur at times)? The search for answers takes the inquiry into psychology, evolutionary biology, social sciences, cultural analysis, and history. Conspiracy theory emerges from this inquiry as a particular type of narrative. The book refers to this underlying template as the Truther Narrative.

A literary critic would recognize a truther narrative as a story built around an archetypal mythic structure: one that all conspiracy theories tend to evoke in common, whatever their surface differences might be. The book spotlights instances in history when this narrative has burgeoned, and has fed movements, and it explores those historical episodes for ideas about why the Truther Narrative seems to be surging in our time and how we as a society might respond to it.

Buy the book here.

Truther Narratives

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ Leave a comment

by Tamim Ansary

The latest book by Tamim Ansary, former moderator and beloved leader of the San Francisco Writers Workshop, TRUTHER NARRATIVES: CONSPIRACY THEORY EXPLAINED. WHAT IT IS, HOW IT FORMS, WHY IT SPREADS is a long-form essay which uses conspiracy theory as a lens for looking at a larger issue—the way narrative shapes our experience of social reality and how this impacts and is impacted by culture and history. 

It begins by asking a simple question: what do we mean by conspiracy theory? How does this type of story differ from narratives about real conspiracies (which after all do occur at times)? The search for answers takes the inquiry into psychology, evolutionary biology, social sciences, cultural analysis, and history. Conspiracy theory emerges from this inquiry as a particular type of narrative. The book refers to this underlying template as the Truther Narrative.

A literary critic would recognize a truther narrative as a story built around an archetypal mythic structure: one that all conspiracy theories tend to evoke in common, whatever their surface differences might be. The book spotlights instances in history when this narrative has burgeoned, and has fed movements, and it explores those historical episodes for ideas about why the Truther Narrative seems to be surging in our time and how we as a society might respond to it.

Buy the book here.

I Will Be the Woman He Loved

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ Leave a comment

by Tania Romanov and Matthew Félix

Revisiting past lives, loves, and lessons, Romanov recounts the challenges of her immigrant childhood in San Francisco and being a successful young female executive in a pre-#MeToo, male-dominated workplace. Facing her loss and grief, she struggles to come to terms with a future very different from what she imagined-one in which she must rediscover her love of life and redefine herself yet again.

Order on Bookshop.

Reminder: Lit Crawl on Saturday!

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ Leave a comment

Dear writers,

We hope to see many of you at Noisebridge this Saturday for our reading at Lit Crawl. This year, this pub crawl of literary readings will feature 60 events in one night all across San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood, and we’re honored to be a part of it. For more on Lit Crawl, check out this article on Mission Local. Here’s more info on our event:

When: Saturday, October 26, 6:30 – 7:30 pm

Where: Noisebridge, 272 Capp Street, San Francisco

What: A reading and a participatory literary game!

Writers bios:

Ken Grosserode is an attorney and writer in San Francisco. He lives with his partner in what was once a nunnery. His influences include Iris Murdoch, Donna Tarrt, and the ghosts of various Catholic nuns.

Karen Gu is a software engineer and writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work explores power, identity and feminism through science fiction, fantasy, and friends.

Jiyoung Han is a writer from Seoul, South Korea. She daylights as a sustainability researcher looking to make carbon reduction easier for everyone. Her writing often uses fantastical elements to examine the impacts of colonialism on people’s day-to-day lives.

Kurt is a fiction writer, focused on strange tales of idiocy and culture, inspired by Northern California.

Judy Viertel has been published in Gargoyle Magazine, Gold Dust Magazine, Identity Theory, and Short Story America: Anthology Five. She’s one of four moderators for that venerable but ornery West Coast institution, the San Francisco Writers Workshop. If you were wondering if she can dance the shim sham, the answer is yes. She certainly can.

Celebrate Lit Crawl with the San Francisco Writers Workshop!

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ Leave a comment

Dear writers,

San Francisco Writers Workshop is proud to host an event at the annual Lit Crawl festival. Come out to the San Francisco’s Mission district to celebrate literature and our community. Bring friends and help us spread the word!

When: Saturday, October 26, 6:30 – 7:30 pm

Where: Noisebridge, 272 Capp Street, San Francisco

What: A reading and a participatory literary game!

Writers bios:

Ken Grosserode is an attorney and writer in San Francisco. He lives with his partner in what was once a nunnery. His influences include Iris Murdoch, Donna Tarrt, and the ghosts of various Catholic nuns.

Karen Gu is a software engineer and writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work explores power, identity and feminism through science fiction, fantasy, and friends.

Jiyoung Han is a writer from Seoul, South Korea. She daylights as a sustainability researcher looking to make carbon reduction easier for everyone. Her writing often uses fantastical elements to examine the impacts of colonialism on people’s day-to-day lives.

Kurt is a fiction writer, focused on strange tales of idiocy and culture, inspired by Northern California.

Judy Viertel has been published in Gargoyle Magazine, Gold Dust Magazine, Identity Theory, and Short Story America: Anthology Five. She’s one of four moderators for that venerable but ornery West Coast institution, the San Francisco Writers Workshop. If you were wondering if she can dance the shim sham, the answer is yes. She certainly can.

Celebrate Lit Crawl with the San Francisco Writers Workshop!

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ 1 Comment

San Francisco Writers Workshop is proud to host an event at the annual Lit Crawl festival. Come out to the San Francisco’s Mission district to celebrate literature and our community. Bring friends and help us spread the word!

When: Saturday, October 26, 6:30 – 7:30 pm

Where: Noisebridge, 272 Capp Street, San Francisco

What: A reading and a participatory literary game!

Writers bios:

Ken Grosserode is an attorney and writer in San Francisco. He lives with his partner in what was once a nunnery. His influences include Iris Murdoch, Donna Tarrt, and the ghosts of various Catholic nuns.

Karen Gu is a software engineer and writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work explores power, identity and feminism through science fiction, fantasy, and friends.

Jiyoung Han is a writer from Seoul, South Korea. She daylights as a sustainability researcher looking to make carbon reduction easier for everyone. Her writing often uses fantastical elements to examine the impacts of colonialism on people’s day-to-day lives.

Kurt is a fiction writer, focused on strange tales of idiocy and culture, inspired by Northern California.

Judy Viertel has been published in Gargoyle Magazine, Gold Dust Magazine, Identity Theory, and Short Story America: Anthology Five. She’s one of four moderators for that venerable but ornery West Coast institution, the San Francisco Writers Workshop. If you were wondering if she can dance the shim sham, the answer is yes. She certainly can.

The Noisebridge Quinceañera

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ Leave a comment

Dear writers, on Saturday, August 3rd, our venue, Noisebridge Hackerspace, is having a party and a fundraising drive. It has been such a vibrant place to meet for us. Let’s come out to support them!

For this Saturday starting at 7pm, they’re planning a wild 15th year anniversary party:

* Music and dancing with dance lessons! (Krunking, Judy thinks)
* Food and Beverages!
* Rube Goldberg hackathon award ceremony!
* Noisebridge Shark Tank!/Pitch Competition
* Sidewalk astronomy! (weather permitting)
* Raffle, silent auction, and swag sale!
* Member activity showcases!

If you’ve been curious about this place, this is the perfect time to check it out. It’s a fundraiser, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Our own Judy Viertel is certainly planning on being there.

If you can’t make it and want to help out, please donate through their website!