David Bezmozgis

Writer and filmmaker David Bezmozgis is the author of Natasha and Other Stories, as well as the novels The Free World, and The Betrayers. His many awards include being twice nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award. His debut story collection, Natasha and Other Stories, won the Toronto Book Award and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize Best First Book Award. Bezmozgis’s short stories have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, The New Yorker, The Walrus, Zoetrope All-Story, and Best American Short Stories 2005 and 2006. He was also a writer-producer on the fifth and final season of Orphan Black. He lives in Toronto where he is the Director of the Humber School for Writers.

Website: bezmozgis.com
Twitter: @bezmozgis

David Bezmozgis’s latest book of short stories focuses heavily on moral complexity and immigrant experiences, highlighting the author’s uncanny ability to write sensitive, sympathetic prose.” — The Globe and Mail

FESTIVAL BOOK

Immigrant City

In these deeply-felt, slyly humorous stories, David Bezmozgis pleads no special causes but presents immigrant characters with all their contradictions and complexities, their earnest and divided hearts.

In the title story, a father and his young daughter stumble into a bizarre version of his immigrant childhood. In “Roman’s Song,” Roman’s desire to help a new immigrant brings him into contact with a sordid underworld. In “The Russian Riviera,” Kostya leaves Russia to pursue a boxing career only to find himself working as a doorman in a garish nightclub in the Toronto suburbs.

DIVE DEEPER

Reviews

“David Bezmozgis’ Immigrant Stories about making connections ‘unfailingly sympathetic’” — The Star
“David Bezmozgis Makes a Successful Return to the Short Story” — The Globe and Mail

Articles

“When Artists Become Unwitting Standard Bearers for a Cause” — The Globe and Mail