Diaghilev fever is taking London by storm. The V&A's major exhibition 'Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes, 1909-1929' reveals Diaghilev's enduring influence on 20th-century art, design and fashion. The V&A is also holding a number of other Diaghilev themed events, including 'The Music of Diaghilev with the Philharmonia Orchestra' and 'Rephrasing the Ballets Russes', in collaboration with the English National Ballet. And the perfect accompaniment to this year's season of Diaghilev events is Sjeng Scheijen's new biography of the arguably the greatest (and most controversial) impresario of all time.

The first Russian stand at BookExpo America New York, 25 - 27 May 2010 This year the BOOKS FROM RUSSIA stand took part in BookExpo America, the main fair in the American book industry. The stand was organised by the Russian Federal agency for Press and Mass Communications and represented a range of Russian publishers. BookExpo America is currently undergoing major changes, transforming itself from a fair which focused primarily on the domestic market into an international book forum.

Monday 7 June, 7pm
Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre Courtauld Institute, Somerset House
Chaired by Elaine Feinstein
The Bolshevik Revolution produced a mass exodus of Russia’s aristocracy and educated bourgeoisie. In the years following 1917 many of Russia’s most talented writers, artists, composers, scientists, professionals,

Yume Pictures and Academia Rossica are delighted to invite you to a special screening of the film 'A Room and a Half' at 8pm on 10 May at Cine Lumière, South Kensington, London, SW7 2DT, followed by Q&A with director Andrey Khrzhanovsky and actress Alisa Freyndlikh. It is a beautifully mesmerising film based on the life of the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky.

The Debut Prize was instituted in 2000 by State Duma Deputy Andrei Skoch, creator of the humanitarian foundation Pokolenie (Generation). Skoch originally conceived of Pokolenie as a medical charity to help provincial Russian clinics, sick children and pensioners. The Debut, Pokolenie’s only cultural project to date, has become a prize of national renown. The Debut has a strict age limit: entrants may not be over the age of 25. Members of the Russian literary establishment were skeptical at first. They doubted that writers so young would have something to say to readers. Young writers might try their hand at poetry, they argued, but they didn’t have enough life experience to write a story or a novel. However, the Debut has shown that a person’s life experience at any age is complete in and of itself. What a person knows about the world at 20 has been forgotten by the time he is 30. What he could have written at 20 he will no longer write at 30. He will write something else. Strangely enough, most writers live without their first book: it remains in their minds, in drafts. The Debut inspires young Russian writers to complete that first book. The Debut prompts them to commit to literature their unique experience, what might be described as the shock of their first encounter with grown-up life. Not just their new existential status, but daily events. Suddenly a person is faced with bank applications, having to pay rent and buy insurance; no one will fill out the forms for him, no one will answer for him. And he suddenly feels horribly alone in the world. This sort of loneliness, like any other, has a huge creative potential. The Debut brings in the first literary harvest of the writing generation — and it does so every year. 2010 marks the first year of Debut’s international program. Funded by Pokolenie, the program aims to present the works of Debut finalists and winners to the foreign reader. Collections of these works will be translated and their authors will be sent to international book fairs and festivals. This year’s collection appears in English and Chinese. Future collections will be brought out in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and so on. Since the number of Debut finalists and winners is only increasing, as is their level and mastery, publication of their works in English will continue.

When Academia Rossica approached me to serve on the jury for their translation prize, I was excited and intrigued. What would the field be like, how many entries would there be, were there still publishers around in the West willing to produce translations of serious Russian works? The classics apart, was there more to Russian literature for English-speaking people than penguins and historical detectives? My caricature of the average Western reader's view of Russian literature today can perhaps be excused in part by my own education.

Izbavi Bog i nas ot etakikh sudei

A few weeks ago something strange happened. Someone sent me, through the post, ten million printed words – I’ll repeat that, in case you weren’t concentrating: ten million words – nearly half of them in a difficult foreign language. I was told to get reading them.

The first day ended with an evening with Dmitry Bykov and Bridget Kendall at Waterstone’s, Piccadilly. Bykov entertained the large audience with, along with everything else, a joke. It went like this: “At birth you get a label put on your arm, after death, it’s put on your foot. If someone gets the same number both times, they win a prize – a pressure cooker.”

Alexander Arkhangelsky was born in Moscow in 1962. He graduated in pedagogy and wrote a dissertation about Pushkin. At different times he has been a radio-journalist, written for literary journals and political newspapers, and has taught.

Russian Gulliver is a publishing project designed to provide exposure to great new names in poetry, prose and essay-writing written in Russian regardless of country of residence. Their slogan ‘Our authors will become famous’ is born out in number of prizes and the amount of attention that their writers and readers receive. The publisher is interesting because it is run not by professional publishers, but by professional writers: the poet and prosaisist Vadim Mesiats and the writer Aleksands Davidov, who are closer to the creative realm.

By Maria Levina
"Distribution remains the biggest issue," said director Mikhail Kalatozishvili, whose film "Wild Field" was presented at the Kinotavr festival in Sochi in June and at the Russian Film Festival in London late last month. "We still have only about 1,500 modern screens, and although this number is increasing it will be a few years before there are enough theaters to show many of the films produced."

By Maria Levina
"Distribution remains the biggest issue," said director Mikhail Kalatozishvili, whose film "Wild Field" was presented at the Kinotavr festival in Sochi in June and at the Russian Film Festival in London late last month. "We still have only about 1,500 modern screens, and although this number is increasing it will be a few years before there are enough theaters to show many of the films produced."

Award-winning novelist, short story writer and journalist James Meek was born in London in 1962 and grew up in Dundee. We Are Now Beginning Our Descent is his fourth novel. His previous book, The People's Act of Love (2005), won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, the SAC Book of the Year Award, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and has been translated into more than twenty languages.

Tsvetaeva scholar Angela Livingstone has translated a number of Tsvetaeva's essays on art and writing, compiled in a book called Art in the Light of Conscience. Livingstone's translation of Tsvetaeva's "The Ratcatcher" was published as a separate book. She has published articles on and translations of Pasternak and Platonov as well as a number of books, including: Pasternak (1969, with Donald Davie); Lou Andreas-Salomé (1984); Pasternak on Art and Creativity (1985); Pasternak: Doctor Zhivago (1989); and A Hundred Years of Andrei Platonov (2002)

Novelist and broadcaster. He was born in Moscow in 1945. He studied art and later geometrical topology at Moscow University. He emigrated in 1975 and worked as a theatre director for a student theatre group in Jerusalem. Since 1976 he has lived and worked in London. He regularly contributes to BBC Radio, the Times Literary Supplement and to other periodicals. He is editor and presenter of West End, a weekly radio show for the BBC Russian Service. Zinovy's seven novels have been translated into a number of European languages. His novel The Mushroom Picker was made into a film for BBC Television in 1994. His novel Russian Service, as well as a number of his short stories, were adapted for BBC Radio 3 and for Radio France. During the 1990s three of his novels in Russian were nominated for the Russian Booker in Moscow. Zinik's dramatic farce Here Comes the Tiger, set to music by Gerard McBurney, was first performed by The Gogmagogs at the London City Festival in 1999. His radio documentary on Berlin, After the Wall, (with Claudia Sinnig) was awarded the Bronze Medal at the New York International Radio Festival in 2001. His documentary radio drama My Father's Leg was broadcast by BBC Radio 3 in 2003. Zinik's recent collection of short stories Mind the Doors was published in 2002 by Context Books, New York. Zinovy is a member of The Colony Room Club in Soho.

Writer, journalist and TV presenter, Alexander Arkhangelsky is best known for authoring and presenting the Russian television programme ‘Tem vremenem’ (Meanwhile) on the ‘Culture’ channel. He has been honoured by several prizes for his work in the television and he himself frequently appears on radio and television talk-shows as a commentator on contemporary society and literature. He is also a well published author of a number of books, including his latest novel 1962, and articles on Russian literature, many of which have been translated into foreign languages. He served on the jury of the Russian Booker Prize and others. Alexander’s wide experience of academe, the media and journalism makes him a most valuable commentator on many aspects of contemporary Russia and culture.

Zinovy Zinik is a Moscow-born novelist and broadcaster. He studied art and later geometrical topology at Moscow University. He emigrated in 1975 and worked as a theatre director for a student theatre group in Jerusalem. Since 1976 he has lived and worked in London. He regularly contributes to BBC Radio, the Times Literary Supplement and other periodicals. He is the editor and presenter of West End, a weekly radio show for the BBC Russian Service. Zinovy's nine books of fiction have been translated into a number of European languages. Of his recent books, Zinik's collection of short stories in English Mind the Doors was published in 2002 by Context Books, New York.

Writer, journalist and TV presenter, Alexander Arkhangelsky is best known for authoring and presenting the Russian television programme ‘Tem vremenem’ (Meanwhile) on the ‘Culture’ channel. He has been honoured by several prizes for his work in the television and he himself frequently appears on radio and television talk-shows as a commentator on contemporary society and literature. He is also a well published author of a number of books, including his latest novel 1962, and articles on Russian literature, many of which have been translated into foreign languages. He served on the jury of the Russian Booker Prize and others.