Olga Slavnikova, Russian Booker Prize Winner: Reading and Discussion with Elizabeth Taylor of the Chicago Tribune October 22, 2012

Olga Slavnikova, Winner of the Russian Booker Prize, Reads from her Works and discusses Art and Culture in a Volatile Nation with Elizabeth Taylor of the Chicago

Description:
Olga Slavnikova is one of the most important voices in Russian literature today and an internationally known novelist. She characterizes the approach she takes in her six novels and numerous short stories as the inverse of “magical realism.” She introduces a fantastical element into an everyday context to create a kind of grotesque of the latter.
About her style, Slavnikova says: “I am primarily a language writer. For me, every plot twist is a set of possibilities for the linguistic plot, too. I understand that, for the most part, no one is going to see this. And this is why my books don’t fall into the category of “comfortable reading.””


Slavnikova will read from her best-known work, the novel 2017, in which the current social turmoil in Russia erupts into a second Russian Revolution on the 100th anniversary of the original Revolution. The novel has been called “an ambitious, postmodern contribution to a revered literary tradition” and it weaves together numerous plotlines, partaking simultaneously of such dissimilar literary lineages as the romantic adventure tale, science-fiction dystopias, and the Tolstoyan epic novel. She was awarded the Russian Booker Prize for 2017 in 2006. The English translation was released in paperback last month.


She will also read an excerpt from her latest novel Light Head, which was just short-listed (one of six finalists) for the Russian Booker Prize in this year’s competition. The bluntly fantastical aspect of this work – weightlessness of the central character’s head – is typically quirky, bereft of emotionally charged associations, be they comforting or fearful, romantic or exalting. But as unexpected connections and significances accrete to the odd idea, the light head ultimately throws the essence of Russia’s new and ruthless brand of consumer society into sharp relief. Indeed, the fate of nations is eventually made to depend upon this physiological anomaly, as is, of course, the fate of the main character himself. Light Head will be coming out in English translation this year.


Elizabeth Taylor, who will moderate the discussion with Slavnikova, is Literary Editor of the Chicago Tribune. She joined the Tribune in 1996, after spending 13 years as a Correspondent with Time Magazine, based in New York, then Chicago.


Elizabeth has been President of the National Book Critics Circle, and continues to serve on its Board of Directors. She has served on three Pulitzer juries, chairing both the Biography and Fiction juries. She has served the Harold Washington Literary Prize committee, including two stints as chairman.

With Adam Cohen, she is the co-author of American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley: His Battle for Chicago and the Nation, named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times.


This event is brought to you by CAUSA ARTIUM, a NYC-based arts non-profit, in cooperation with the Debut Prize Foundation.

For more information, see www.CausaArtium.org and www.DebutPrize.com.

Official Website: http://www.debutprize.com/ai1ec_event/olga-slavnikova-at-the-newberry-library/