Book Launch - "Late Blossoms: Stories" - Dr. Merav Fima

​Please join the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies on Wednesday, March 18, 2026 at 10:00 AM ET for a book launch with Dr. Merav Fima.

​*Zoom option available: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/7izG_we0TD-fyYFnm1udKA

​"Late Blossoms: Stories"

​Late Blossoms captures a vivid image of Jerusalem, past and present, through the eyes of its diverse inhabitants, specifically historical and contemporary migrant women artists. The stories in the central part of the collection are set at a literary salon hosted in the mid-twentieth century at the Jerusalem residence of painter Anna Ticho and her husband, ophthalmologist Dr. Albert Ticho. Each story features as its protagonist a different character, all of them migrant European women writers, poets, or painters. Inspired by historical figures, among them Anna Ticho, Rachel Bluwstein-Sela, Zelda Schneurson-Mishkovsky, Else Lasker-Schüler, Leah Goldberg, and Nelly Sachs, these characters reappear in the linked short stories. Meeting on a regular basis to share their creative work and discuss the challenges of writing and painting in a new and unfamiliar environment, language, and culture, these women shaped the emerging State of Israel’s literary, artistic, cultural, and intellectual scenes.

​Bio:
Dr. Merav Fima is the author of the acclaimed short story collection Late Blossoms (Vine Leaves Press, 2025) and of the forthcoming mystical Sephardic migration novel, The Rose of Thirteen Petals and the Pomegranate Tree (Running Wild Press, 2027).

​Originally from Montreal, she is currently based in Melbourne, Australia, where she earned her Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Monash University. Several of her short stories have been honored in literary contests and her work has appeared in anthologies and literary journals worldwide, including: Meanjin Quarterly; Parchment; Poetica Magazine; and The Australian Book Review.

​She was awarded a grant for “exceptionally talented writers” from the Israel Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, as well as a translation grant from the Israel Science Foundation for her translation of Gal Ventura’s scholarly monograph, Maternal Breast-Feeding and Its Substitutes in Nineteenth-Century French Art (Brill, 2018).

​Learn more: https://vineleavespress.myshopify.com/products/late-blossoms-by-merav-fima