Shelly Oria (born 1978) is an Israeli-American author, notable for short stories featuring

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

characters.

Personal life and achievements

Oria was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, but grew up in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. She features

characters in her stories. She received the Indiana Review Fiction Prize, a Sozopol Fiction Seminars Fellowship in Bulgaria and was an artist in residence with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council between 2014 and 2015. Her collection of short stories, ''New York 1, Tel Aviv 0,'' was published by FSG and Random House Canada in November 2014. Her work has been featured in several publications, including ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

'' and ''

McSweeney's McSweeney's Publishing is an American non-profit publishing house founded by Dave Eggers in 1998 and headquartered in San Francisco. Initially publishing the literary journal'' Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', the company has moved to n ...

.'' Oria received attention about the book from ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'''', Kirkus Review','' and other outlets. ''New York 1, Tel Aviv 0'' was translated into Hebrew and published in Israel by Keter Books in August 2015.

Higher Education

Oria received a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

from

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

in 2007. She began writing in fiction in English, her second language, at the college in 2006. Oria studied how to be a life and creativity coach while in Israel between 2008 and 2009 in the Alder Institute and with

Julia Cameron Julia B. Cameron (born March 4, 1948Floor Sample, by Julia Cameron, (Tarcher, 2006; ), a memoir) is an American teacher, author, artist, poet, playwright, novelist, filmmaker, pigeon fancier, composer, and journalist. She is best known for her ...

in 2004.

Awards

As of March 16, 2015, Oria was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and a nominee for the

Edmund White Award The Edmund White Award is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle to honour debut novels by writers within the LGBT community. First presented in 2006, the award was named in honour of American novelist Edmund White. Winners * 2 ...

for Debut Fiction. She is also a MacDowell Colony fellow.

Current life

Oria lives in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. In September 2015, she told Israeli newspaper ''Yediot Ahronot'' that she's currently at work on several projects, including a play trilogy, a feature film, and a novel. She curates the ''Sweet! Actors Reading Writers'' series. It is currently on hiatus. She works at the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

as a fiction teacher and a co-director for the Writer's Forum. She's had her private practice as a life and creativity coach since 2009.

Works

Books

Short stories

"Do You Follow the News?"
(2011)
"Documentation"
(2010)
"Emma's Undoing"
(2010)
"Integrity"
(2011)
"It Is Something Like This"
(2010)
"My Wife in Converse"
(2010)
"New York 1, Tel Aviv 0"
(2010)
"Phonetic Masterpieces of Absurdity"
(2010)
"Reassembly"
(2010)
"Stand Still"
(2014)
"That Night""The Beginning of a Plan"
(2012)
"The Disneyland of Albany"
(2014)

(2014)
"This Way I Don't Have to Be""Tzfirah"
(2010)
"We, the Women"

References

External links

* , official website
Shelly Oria's Twitter

The In-Between Space: An Interview with Shelly Oria
from ''

''
Wave Motion: An Interview with Shelly Oria
from ''

Fiction Writers Review ''Fiction Writers Review'' is an online literary journal that publishes reviews of new fiction, interviews with fiction writers, and essays on craft and the writing life. The journal was founded in 2008 and incorporated as a non-profit organization ...

''
Young (Mostly), Hip (Mostly), Adrift in 2 Worlds
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oria, Shelly 1978 births 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American short story writers American expatriates in Israel American feminist writers American people of Israeli descent American women academics American women short story writers American lesbian writers LGBT people from California LGBT people from New York (state) Life coaches Living people Pratt Institute faculty Queer writers Sarah Lawrence College alumni Writers from Brooklyn Writers from Los Angeles