David Bezmozgis will present his first published book, Natasha and Other Stories for the CLSC program. Stories from this collection first appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, and Zeotrope. The title story, “Natasha” was included in the 2005 Best American Short Stories collection, and his story, “New Gravestones for an old Grave” will be included in the 2006 Best American Stories collection.

Upon its release, Natasha received numerous awards including the Best First Book award from the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Caribbean/ Canada); the Reform Judaism Prize for Jewish Fiction; the 2004 Fiction Award from Moment Magazine; and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for best first collection of short fiction in English. The book was also a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Natasha was also chosen as one of the New York Public Library's 25 Books to Remember for 2004. It was a New York Times Notable Book of 2004, a Chicago Tribune Best Book of 2004, one of the Los Angeles Times 25 Best Books of 2004, a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2004, and a Borders Original Voices 2004 Award Finalist for Fiction.

Born in Riga, Latvia in 1973, Mr. Bezmozgis immigrated with his parents to Toronto, Canada. He earned an English literature degree from McGill University and an M.F.A. from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television. He is a 2005 Guggenheim Fellow.
 . . . short bio

David Bezmozgis will present his first published book, Natasha and Other Stories for the CLSC program. Stories from this collection first appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, and Zeotrope. The title story, “Natasha” was included in the 2005 Best American Short Stories collection, and his story, “New Gravestones for an old Grave” will be included in the 2006 Best American Stories collection.

Upon its release, Natasha received numerous awards including the Best First Book award from the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Caribbean/ Canada); the Reform Judaism Prize for Jewish Fiction; the 2004 Fiction Award from Moment Magazine; and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for best first collection of short fiction in English . . . full bio