Featured Interview With Meirav Oz
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name is Meirav Oz, I’m a published Author, Screen Writer, a world-wide Speaker and an Owner of a Talent Recruitment Agency for Advertising, with over a decade of managerial experience in Israel’s leading international Advertising agencies.
Today I live In Tel Aviv but, I was born and raised in small town in Israel called Kfar–Saba.
I was a curious little girl with a vast inner world. I remember my childhood surrounded by books, I’ve spent most of my childhood in the corridors of the community library.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I started writing when I was about nine. Actually my first book called: “Sweet Dreams” was published when I was twelve. It was a children’s book written by a child. An allocation of thirty (must admit-childish and naïve) poems I wrote when I was about nine or ten years old.
Years after I grew up to be a senior executive in the tough advertising industry. I always had a passion for creative people. My background in writing helped me in my career, but I neglected writing for years. After a few years in the advertising business I came back to it and started writing an anonymous column in an Israeli Advertising magazine.
The writing was my gateway from the hectic crazy world of advertising. I wrote about myself and my life and no one knew I was the one behind this character. After a year the magazine went out of business and I found myself continuing writing this fictional personal diary and understood I’m writing a novel.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My sources of inspiration is very wide – it could be from Israeli authors such as David Grossman, Eshkol Nevo, or Amos Oz (no family relation..), but also from contemporary journalism writing or even TV series. For example I can defiantly say that Lena Dunham is a creator that makes me want to write…
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest novel called “One Wrong Move” – It started from my column and turned to a Novel depicting the behind-the-scenes of the advertising world. It was first published in Israel and was an immediate success. Now it’s translated to English. The plot is based on my personal story and my former career. It goes like this:
When Karnie, a 28 year-old redhead Account Executive who starts to work in a big Advertising agency in Tel Aviv, she feels she has made it. And why wouldn’t she? The agency is super chic, the people are fascinating, the accounts are desirable and the campaigns are trend setting.
Her co-workers at the agency are a colorful bunch of characters, to whom she refers by their nicknames: Dolce & Gabbana, the hottest girls in the account executive department; Senior Blonde, her bitchy account supervisor; C.D, the godless sassy creative director; Killer Lady, the intimidating producer; Big Boss, the ambitious CEO, and Ben-Ben, the witty copy writer and her best friend.
In no time, Karnie becomes addicted to her job and can’t point where her work ends and her life begins.
Not that things on the personal front seem too bright either: Her relationship with her family is tense and alienated; and she soon gets carried away into a tumultuous love affair with a frustrated artist she meets on a photo shoot.
The reader follows Karnie as she struggles to balance her professional and personal life, fearing that it would only take one wrong move for her entire world to collapse.
With its contemporary, witty, sharp and rhythmic tone, this novel will make you laugh, sympathize, and even realize something about the struggle of a generation to find its identity through a demanding career.
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