- David Bezmozgis
-
David Bezmozgis 
David Bezmozgis (left) and Mark Rendall (right)Born David Bezmozgis
June 2, 1973David Bezmozgis (born 1973) is a Canadian writer and filmmaker.
Born in Riga, Latvia, he came to Canada with his family when he was six. He graduated with a B.A. in English literature from McGill University. Bezmozgis received an M.F.A. from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television. In 1999, his first documentary, a 25-minute film called L.A. Mohel, won a major award for student filmmakers.
His first published book is Natasha and Other Stories (2004, ISBN 0-374-28141-6). Stories from that collection first appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's and Zoetrope All-Story.
His story "Natasha," which originally appeared in Harper's, was included in the Best American Short Stories 2005 collection; his story "New Gravestone for an Old Grave," which originally appeared in Zoetrope, was included in the 2006 Best American Stories collection.
Natasha and Other Stories was chosen for inclusion in Canada Reads 2007, where it was championed by Steven Page.
In 2008 he completed his first feature film, Victoria Day, which he wrote and directed. The film stars Mark Rendall.[1]The film had its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
Bezmozgis is a 2010 New York Public Library Cullman Center Fellow, where he will be working on The Betrayers, a novel about a famous Russian Jewish dissident who, after the fall of the Soviet Union, meets the man who denounced him.
Bezmozgis's novel "The Free World" (2011), set in Italy in 1978, chronicles the experience of Jewish refugees from the USSR.
Bezmozgis is among The New Yorker magazine's 2010 top 20 fiction writers under the age of 40. The story "The Train of Their Departure", which the magazine featured in August 2010, is an excerpt from his first novel The Free World, released on April 4, 2011, to wide acclaim. The novel was subsequently shortlisted for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize [2] and for the Governor General's Awards.[3]
Contents
Awards
- Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction (2004)
- Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award for Fiction, Koffler Centre of the Arts (2005)
- Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award (UK) (2004)
- Shortlisted for the Governor General's Awards for Literature (2004)
- Shortlisted for the Borders Original Voices Award (2004)
- Winner of the Reform Judaism Prize for Jewish Fiction (2004)
- Winner of the Commonwealth First Book Prize for Caribbean/Canada (2004)
- Winner of the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for best first collection of short fiction in the English language (2005)
- Finalist for the National Magazine Awards for fiction (2005)
- Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2005)
- Winner of the City of Toronto Book Award (2005)
- Winner of the JQ Wingate Prize 2005 Fiction, Natasha and Other Stories
Work available online
- Tapka from The New Yorker
- The Russian Riviera from The New Yorker
- The Second Strongest Man from Zoetrope All-Story
- A New Gravestone for an Old Grave from Zoetrope All-Story
- The Train of Their Departure from The New Yorker
Work about Bezmozgis available online
Filmography
As writer and director
Year Film Role Other notes 2008 Victoria Day Writer and Director. A Markham Street Film Production. References
- ^ http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gHdTqRB7SNzTuQ7_QJeATjJ8B84w
- ^ [1] The Globe and Mail, October 4, 2011.
- ^ [2] The Globe and Mail, October 11, 2011.
External links
Categories:- 1973 births
- Living people
- Canadian film directors
- Jewish Canadian writers
- Canadian short story writers
- Canadian people of Latvian descent
- Guggenheim Fellows
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
