News

Two Russian authors of children’s literature have been nominated this year for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. The names of the nominees for the prize were announced on October 10 at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

The jury of the literary prize Russian Booker have announced the short-list of six finalists for the 2013 prize for the best novel written in the Russian language. The contenders are:

Boris Akunin has recently announced his new book project History of the Russian State which will take him 10 years and include both historical materials and literary sources.
He compared his work with that of his famous predecessor , 18th century novelist turned historian Nikolai Karamzin who wrote the seminal text of Russian history also entitled History of the Russian State (1818-24). Other than Karamzin, Akunin pointed out, no Russian writer has been able to create a lot of interest in history among general public.

The “Read Russia” program once again brings out the best in Russian literature to Frankfurt. During October 9-13, the Russian stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair (5.0 C 136) will display around 1,000 books from more than 60 publishers from Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and other Russian regions. There will be 40 events – both at the stand and at other venues at the fair – offering opportunities to meet with Russian publishers and literary agents who sell rights for publishing Russian writers, as well as with the writers themselves.

On Friday 4th October Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio will be performing at Cadogan Hall. The programme includes: Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence, Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10. 

The Moscow International Book Fair opened on Wednesday last week under a rainy Moscow sky which added to the ghostly melancholy of the gilded Soviet statues in the All-Russian Exhibition Centre where it took place. The fair is the most representative and the largest book forum in Russia. Starting at the end of the Soviet era, Russian publishers considerthe MIBF to be the most significant event of the year. They participate in the fair to establish new contacts and develop their old ones, to sell or purchase books and rights for publications and to explore the book market. It is a professional event and participation in the fair is an integral part of keeping abreast of the book market.

The Institute for Literary Translation has announced a grant aided programme targeted at publishers who are willing to translate and publish in a foreign language a work written in Russian and other languages spoken in the Russian Federation.

Grants will be awarded within the federal program “Culture of Russia (2012-2018)”.

By Simon Knapper

The long-list for the 2013 Russian Booker Prize for the best Russian language novel figures 24 works. The long-list selection was made after the jury had familiarised themselves with the complete 87 works nominated, 82 of which were in contention for the prize. Taking part in the nomination process were 58 publishing houses, 10 magazines, 5 universities and 10 libraries.

By Simon Knapper

In mid June 2013 professional Russian / English translators came together at St Antony’s College, Oxford to discuss the delights and challenges of their craft.

Oliver Ready, Director of Russkiy Mir Programme, and Robert Chandler, a British poet and translator, named the two-day workshop as a “Translator's Coven”, which they considered to be an informal and relatively humble gathering of working translators.

By Simon Knapper

Dmitry Glukhovsky, author of the popular Metro 2033 and Metro 2034, as well as Tales from the Motherland has started to publish his new novel The Future on his web-page on the Russian social network V Kontakte, Facebook facsimile, where he has over a hundred thousand followers. 

Book industry experts comment on Amazon’s alleged entrance into the Russian market

This event has been long expected by experts in the field and at the end of April it became known that Amazon, the largest online retailer in terms of sales volume, was ready to officially launch on to the Russian market, registering its trademark Amazon Technologies Inc. in Russia. The Russian division of Amazon will be run by Arkadii Vitruk, the former general director of the publishing house “Azbuka –Atticus” who left his post there in the middle of 2012.

Amazon is reported to be setting up in Russia, with former Azbuka-Atticus publishing CEO Arkady Vitrouk leading its Kindle content.

What do Leo Tolstoy, Feodor Dostoevsly, Joseph Brodsky, Ludmila Ulitskaya, Dmitri Rogozin and Steven Fry have in common? The answer is simple – they share love for the Russian language and literature.

On Sunday, 24 March, close to 100 children and parents gathered in a colourfully decorated room at Waterstones Piccadilly at the presentation of Alla Bashenko's new book of poetry for children The Magic World. This event was part of the 4th Russian Literature Festival SLOVO organised in London by Academia Rossica. Guests had a chance to listen to Alla's poems during interactive reading performance by a well known and loved by many actress Dina Korzun. After the readings, children, led by a team of magicians, embarked on a magical journey into the world of the four seasons of the year, their holidays and miracles of nature, and were entertained with themed activities, games, music and dancing.

To celebrate the joys of spring the masleenitza Russian week will come to London and will be offering both culinary and cultural delights.

On Wednesday the 13th of March between 18.30 and 20.00 lovers of Russian literature and poetry are invited to a literary performance hosted by Waterstones at their Piccadilly branch.

One again Slovo Russian Literature Festival has come to London. Three weeks of March from 5^th March to 26^th March will be packed with the exciting events including dialogs, discussions and inspiring lecturers by the acclaimed Russian authors including Dmitry Bykov, Mikhail Shishkin, Vera Polozkova, Vladimir Sharov and Evgeny Vodolazkin.

This year’s National Bestseller Long List has come as a bit of a surprise to many as there are very few non-fiction entries amongst the 46 nominees.

According to Victor Toporov, the executive secretary of the Prize, it also includes quite a number of collections of short stories, whilst historically novels have primarily dominated the lists.

On February 4th publishers, editors and translators gathered together at Kings Place, London to celebrate the awarding of the annual Translation Prize for published translations into English by the UK Society of Authors.

The Sebald Lecture given annually to honour literature in translation is an integral part of the ceremony. This year Russian author Boris Akunin delivered a lecture entitled ‘Paradise lost: confessions of an Apostate Translator’ carring on a tradition set up in the previous years by Seamus Heanet, Susan Sontag, Will Self and Ali Smith.