In Conversation with Writer Assaf Gavron (Ottawa)

With a string of international literary awards and bestselling novels to his credit, Assaf Gavron has earned his place as a foremost Israeli author under 50. In his most recent successes The Hilltop and Tel Aviv Noir, Gavron portrays an unvarnished, authentic Israeli society.

 “His clear and honest writing blasts right through the clichés and the politically correct surface to touch the chaotic, ambiguous core of the Israeli identity.” (Etgar Keret).

Gavron will be in conversation with Daniel Bezalel Richardsen. 

Assaf Gavron is an acclaimed Israeli writer who has published five novels: Ice, Moving, Almost Dead, Hydromania and The Hilltop; a collection of short stories, Sex in the Cemetery; and a non-fiction collection of Jerusalem falafel-joint reviews, Eating Standing Up.  His fiction has been adapted for the stage in Israel’s national theater, and optioned for movies. He is the recipient of several awards including the Bernstein Prize for The Hilltop, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Creative Award for Authors, and the Prix Courrier International in France for Almost Dead. Gavron's latest novel, The Hilltop, was published by Scribner in the US in October 2014.

Daniel Bezalel Richardsen is founder and editor of Foment, the literary magazine of the Ottawa International Writers Festival—Canada's largest independent literary celebration. He is a former federal political staffer, having served as press secretary and researcher. Indian-born, Daniel spent his formative years in Brunei Darussalam before immigrating to Canada as an International Student, completing a Science degree in Applied Health at his alma mater, the University of Waterloo. He is currently a civil servant and a graduate student in History with the Interdisciplinary Humanities program at Trinity Western University.