Central European literary life
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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Literary roundup: Russian heavyweights and a Bulgarian brand
On the use and misuse of the term literary heavyweight, two Russian novelists and the foundation giving Bulgarian writing some international attention.
Photos - Mikhail Shishkin, Dmitry Bykov
Literary roundup: CE Forum, Vladimir Makinin and ©
On the Central European Forum in Bratislava and the European Prize for Literature winner Vladimir Makinin
Photos - Forum guests Zygmunt Bauman, Gyorgy Konrad, and two photos (Golem, pameti noci) by Peter Župník
Literary Roundup: Russian horses, new writers and bodies from Prague
On Chtenia’s Summer 2012 all horses Russian lit issue, a story from the young “Queen of Russian Horror” and Prague literary mag B O D Y
Photo - Two Horses Red and Blue by Franz Marc, 1912 (I know he isn’t Russian but I like the painting, so . . )
Russian writer and journalist Vlas Doroshevich is not the only writer of parablelike stories exploring issues of justice and power who died in the 1920’s and whose work seems to illuminate the much darker period of history that followed his death, when the liquid that smoothed the grinding wheels of bureaucracy was revealed to be blood.
A review of What the Emperor Cannot Do: Tales and Legends of the Orient by Vlas Doroshevich
Literary roundup: new award and age-old problems
On the new Czech Book Award, Context #23, Viktor Shklovsky and 10 Slovenian novels
And for Shklovsky and Russian emigres in Prague go here
Photo - Portrait of Viktor Shklovsky by Robert Rafailovich Falk
Literary roundup: Counting statues and parallel lives
Photo - a monument to Ilf and Petrov’s novel The Twelve Chairs in Odessa
Master and Margarita in Finnish (titled Satan comes to Moscow)
Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita in Estonian
The usefulness of Russian literature
Tolstoy for doctors, Dostoevsky for political scientists …