While the London Book Fair 2013 is still fresh in my memory, I’ll talk about the Read Russia Showcase, which I attended at the LBF. Read Russia is an initiative aiming to raise awareness about Russian literature outside Russia and connect fans of Russian books to modern Russian authors.
The showcase featured interviews of and readings by modern Russian authors and experts specializing on Russian culture – journalists, publishers and translators. The topics varied from Russian post-modernism to the challenges of promoting Russian books in the international market.
The showcase, as I learned, was only a small part of the Read Russia programme. Its other initiatives include:
- Creating the Russian Library – a 125-volume series of Russian fiction, drama and poetry, which is planned to be published in English over the next ten years.
- Russia’s Open Book – a TV documentary focused on modern Russian prose hosted by Steven Fry, which will be broadcasted in US, UK and Europe in the fall 2013 and later on. It will feature authors including Zakhar Prilepin, Dmitry Bykov, Ludmila Ulitskaya, Anna Starobinets, Vladimir Sorokin and Mariam Petrosyan.
- The Read Russia Translation Prize, which is awarded biannually for best translations of Russian works into a foreign language. More info is here. Also, The Institute of Translation was founded in Russia in 2011 to support foreign translators and publishers of Russian literature.
You can find out about Read Russia in detail on its website – http://readrussia2013.com/.
Read Russia also prepared a gift for lovers of Russian literature. It’s An Anthology of New Voice: thirty works of modern Russian authors in one volume – available for FREE download in here. Spread the word about it. This anthology should give you a taste of what modern Russian literature is like and introduce you to the new generation of Russian writers.