Mikhail Shishkin
Biography
The author of widely acclaimed novels, Shishkin is admired as a refined stylist whose fiction engages Russian and European literary traditions and forges an equally expansive vision for the future of literature.
Born January 18, 1961 in Moscow, Shishkin worked as a school teacher and journalist. His writing debut in 1993, the short story Calligraphy Lesson, was named Best Debut of the Year by the literary journal Znamya. In 1995 he moved to Switzerland, where he worked as a Russian and German translator within the Immigration Department and specifically with Asylum Seekers. In recent years he has been living both in Moscow and Zurich.
Shishkin’s first novel, Larionov’s Reminiscences was published in 1994. The two novels which followed have earned him the three most prestigious Russian literary awards: The Taking of Izmail (2000) won the Russian Booker Prize and Venus Hair (Maiden Hair)(2005) was awarded both the National Bestseller Prize and the Big Book prize.
Shishkin’s novel The Light and the Dark (2010) has been greeted with delight by readers and reviewers alike, was acclaimed as the Literary Event of the Year, and came top in the 2010 Imhonet Readers’ Prize.
His work has been translated into more than ten different languages, and has been widely praised for its style, often compared to great writers such as Nabokov and Joyce. All of his novels have been adapted for Stage Production in Russia.
Books /selected/
Письмовник / The Light and the Dark (2010)
Венерин волос / Maiden Hair (2007)
Русская Швейцария / Russian Switzerland (2006)
Взятие Измаила / Taking of Ismail (2000)
Prizes and awards /selected/
2011 - International Literature Award
2007 - Grinzane Cavour Award
2006 - The Big Book Prize
2005 - The National Bestseller Prize
2000 - The Russian Booker Prize