A RUSSIAN SPRING - 50 BEST RUSSIAN WRITERS COME TO LONDON
10 - 16 April 2011
This year SLOVO festival is making way for Britain’s biggest ever celebration of Russian literature – Russia: A New Chapter, the cultural programme of Russia Market Focus.
Over 50 of Russia's best new authors are coming to take part in events and seminars at the London Book Fair. The Market Focus will present both internationally established writers, such as Vladimir Makanin, Ludmila Ulitskaya, Dmitry Bykov, Boris Akunin, Sergei Lukyanenko and exciting, up and coming authors to the forefront of the international book publishing industry and to the attention of the English speaking world. The project will not only feature the best in contemporary fiction, but it will also be a unique opportunity to explore the vibrant world of new Russian poetry, with events with poets Lev Rubinstein, Andrei Rodionov, Maria Stepanova, Linor Goralik and Dmitry Kuzmin. The breadth of Russian non-fiction will also be well represented, with discussions and debates led by acclaimed writers and journalists such as Basinksy, Ivanov and Parfenov.
Literature has always been at the heart of Russian culture. In fact, in the 19th and 20th centuries it gained international repute for being more than literature, but nearly always a forum for political debate, philosophical treatise, and social and psychological study. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov and other great Russian writers revolutionised European literature.
Today’s writers continue this great literary tradition. As Russia is challenged by enormous social and economical transformations, its literature plays an important role by providing a platform for open debate and crystallising new national values. The number of national annual literary awards, including the main - the Big Book Prize, with a cash value larger than that of the British Man Booker Prize, attests to the importance of literature in Russia today.
Events at the London Book Fair
