Inside the New Russian Literature: Prize Winning Young Russian Writers Touring US to Discuss their Work and Artistic Expression in Contemporary Russia February 22, 2012

A new generation of Russian writers visits Harvard. Young authors, all finalists for Russia’s Debut Prize, will read from their works and share reflections on art and freedom in today’s Russia. This is a critical juncture in the history of Russia—the Perestroika and post-Soviet generations are being displaced by a new generation for which the USSR is mere history. Theirs is a complex new Russia, which they strive to represent in their literary works.

"Introducing these writers to Americans is important at this crucial moment in history. They will bring Russian voices that America has yet to hear. The artists have a special perspective on the challenges of confronting and interpreting Russia's changing realities,” Debut Prize Program Director Olga Slavnikova, herself a leading Russian novelist and winner of the Russian Booker Prize, who will also be reading at the events, stated.

Details about the writers:

Alisa Ganieva, born 1985 and raised in Dagestan, won the Debut prize for the controversial short story “Salam, Dalgat.” Published as the work of Gulla Khirachev, a fighter in the war-torn Russian Caucasus, “Salam, Dalgat” exploded onto the literary scene and Khirachev was a star - until the Debut Prize awards. Khirachev was declared the winner, but in place of an unkempt rebel, the prize was accepted by the refined Ganieva. A graduate of Moscow’s prestigious Literary Institute, Ganieva has won awards for literary criticism as well.

Irina Bogatyreva, born 1982 in Kazan, Tatarstan, writes on important issues facing Russia's younger generation. Her work focuses on the freedom offered by Russia's vibrant youth hitchhiking subculture, and the magical appeal of Siberian unspoiled wilderness and the ancient civilizations that lived there. In that spirit, Bogatyreva's award-winning “Off the Beaten Track” struck a chord in Russia. “The protagonists hitchhike from Moscow to the Altai, much as I once did. But from the day it was published, so many people saw themselves in my characters that I came to understand that it wasn't my story alone, but the story of everyone who had ever experienced the joys and the thrill of the open road.”

Igor Savelyev was born in 1983 into a family of writers in Ufa in the southern Urals, where he still lives and works as a crime reporter for the local news agency. In 2004, his short novel Pale City became a cult classic for Russia's youth culture. Based on first-hand experience, the novel is an inside view of the new generation's yearning for independence, freedom and meaning. Critics have raved about Savelyev’s “masterful, finely chiseled style based on brilliant counterpoints, like a virtuoso music piece.”

Dmitry Biryukov was born in 1979 and lives in Novosibirsk's “Academic City.” Biryukov is the author of numerous short stories and essays. Biryukov’s current project is a novel whose protagonist is an artist searching for the hidden meaning of one of the landmark works of 20th century art, Kasimir Malevich's 1915 “Black Square.” A journalist by trade, Biryukov recently left a position as editor-in-chief of Science First-Hand to cover arts and culture.

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Please contact John William Narins of Causa Artium at 818-642-9225 to learn more information or to schedule an interview with the writers.

Official Website: http://debutprize-harvard.eventbrite.com/