Yet More Russian Literary Awards

Two days. Three announcements about Russian literary awards. I’ll take them in order:

Olga Slavnikova, the 2006 Booker Prize winner, won the Kazakov prize for the short story “Сёстры Черепановы.” Slavnikova’s 2017, which won the Booker, has already been translated into English, according to translator Marian Schwartz’s Web site, but is “not yet under contract.” In the meantime, Schwartz’s English translation of an excerpt from Slavnikova’s Бессмертный (The Man Who Wouldn’t Die), a book with themes similar to those in Goodbye, Lenin!, is available on Words Without Borders.

Next up: Daniil Granin won the St. Andrei Pervozvannyi Order. According to Lenta.ru, Granin turned 90 on January 1, 2009, and the award is one of the highest given by the Russian government. I’ve only read a bit of Granin so can’t recommend anything, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that several of his books have been translated into English and German.

Finally, today, I noticed an announcement listing six nominees for the Belkin Prize. They include Margarita Khemlin, who was nominated for the Big Book Award last year; Marina Palei, who is also no stranger to literary short lists; and actor Sergei Iurskii (Yursky), whom I have seen on stage and screen (he’s quite a presence!) but never read. This post on Lenta.ru contains the list of nominees plus links to most of the nominated works.

And one slightly off-topic note. Lenta.ru also reported the death of John Updike. I thank him for many memorable and enjoyable hours of reading. I associate Russia and Updike because he’s so well-known there… I borrowed the Rabbit trilogy from a Russian friend when I lived in Moscow. And another Russian friend loves The Centaur so much that I asked Updike to sign a copy for her when I went to a reading in Boston. 

Olga Slavnikova on Amazon

Daniil Granin on Amazon
John Updike on Amazon