Olga Slavnikova - Reading and Presentation 

Olga Slavnikova - Reading and Presentation

PUSHKIN CLUB PROGRAMME SUPPORTED BY RUSSKIY MIR

Language: In Russian

“This enigmatic, frenetic, interesting, naive, enchanting, determined, heartrending book is one you have to read and allow it to move you. Once again we are dealing with real prose” – Andrei Nemzer

Olga Slavnikova was born to a family of aerospace engineers near Sverdlosk in the Urals, modern day Ekaterinburg. After finishing school she studied journalism and graduated from Ekaterinburg State University. Slavnikova began publishing fiction in the late 1980s (her first novel appeared in 1988), during which time she was also fiction editor, then managing editor, of the important literary magazine ‘Urals’. She has lived and worked in Moscow since 2001.

From the 1990s onwards Slavnikova has produced many acclaimed novels including ‘Стрекоза, увеличенная до размеров собаки’ (‘Dragonfly the Size of a Dog’), ‘Один в зеркале’ (‘Alone in the Mirror’) and ‘Бессмертный’ (‘Immortal’). She has received the Apollon Grigoriev Prize, the Polonsky Prize, the Bazhov Prize and, in 2007, for her novel ‘2017’, the Russian Booker Prize.

Published in 2006, ‘2017’ has been widely acclaimed. Its anti-utopian format allows Slavnikova to dip into the near future in order to survey the century which has elapsed since 1917. A beguiling mix of romance and realism, ‘2017’ is enriched with the folklore of the Urals, the drama of mountaineering expeditions and the gruesome conventions of the gem industry.

“This novel is a breakthrough for Olga Slavnikova… A top class thriller – perhaps the first time that an author, for whom style has been the sole concern up to now, has set the storyline wheel spinning with one striking scene after the other… “ – Lev Danilkin

Slavnikova also writes prolifically about contemporary literature and was pivotal in the establishment of the Debut Independent Literary Prize for young authors writing in Russian: each year the prize receives anything up to 50,000 entries.

Main published works

Strekoza, uvelichennaya do razmerov sobaki (“Dragonfly the Size of a Dog”), 1999

Odin v Zerkale (“Alone in the Mirror”)

Winner of the Bazgov Prize 1999

Bessmertniy: Povest’ o nastoyashem cheloveke (“Immortal”), 2001

France: L’immortel: Histoire d’un homme véritable Editions Gallimard 2004, translation by Christine Zeytounian-Beloüs

Italy: L’immortale: Storia di un uomo vero. Edizioni Einaudi 2007

“2017”, 2006

Winner of the Russian Booker Prize 2006

Lyubov v sed’mom vagone (“Love in the seventh carriage”), 2008

Other prizes:

2017 won the Russian Booker Prize in 2006. Something you could definitely mention is that it is about to be published in English in Marian Schwartz’s translation. It will appear in the US in March (Overlook Press), and in the UK in April (Duckworth). This is her first book to be translated into English, so her visit now is well timed.

Ural Prize (1996), October Prize (2001), Polonsky Prize for fiction, Apollon Grigoriev Prize


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