Yuzefovich Wins 2009 Big Book Award

Now that the turkey’s in the oven, here’s a quick bit of Russian literary news for American Thanksgiving: Leonid Iuzefovich (Leonid Yuzefovich) won the Big Book award for Журавли и карлики (Cranes and Dwarfs or Cranes and Pygmies). The book is online in Russian (beginning middle end), and an English-language excerpt is available on translator Marian Schwartz’s Web site (here). The Life Stories anthology contains a story by Iozefovich, “The Storm” (“Гроза”), also translated by Schwartz. Iozefovich won second place in the Big Book readers’ vote.

The Big Book jury awarded second prize to Aleksandr Terekhov for Каменный мост (The Stone Bridge). Leonid Zorin took third place for Скверный глобус (The Wretched Globe).

Andrei Baldin won first place among readers for Протяжение точки (For some reason, I like calling this one The Space of a Dot). The text of the book is available in html and iPaper formats here. Readers awarded third place to Mariam Petrosian for Дом, в котором... (The House in Which…).

Boris Vasil’ev won a special award (“за честь и достоинство” – “for honor and merit/virtue”). A list of Vasil’ev’s work on Russian Wikipedia shows a number of historical and World War 2 novels, many of which have been adapted for film. I have one of his historical novels on my shelf...

It’s time to make apple pie -- Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates the holiday!

Life Stories on Amazon