In autumn 2016, six British and Russian artists shared an epic journey along the Trans-Siberian Railway, writing music, fiction and poetry that reflected their experiences, and performing for the public along the way.
Today at the London Book Fair we hear writers Joe Dunthorne and Andrew Dickson (Britain), and Alisa Ganieva (Russia) reflect on their adventure, with breath-taking AV footage of the iconic journey filmed by Arseny Khachaturyan for The Storytellers. Chaired by Doug Wallace.
Part of the UK-Russia Year of Literature and Language 2016, and "Читай Россию/Read Russia" programme at the London Book Fair. Sponsored by the British Council, the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Centre, and the Institute for Literary Translation. The discussion will be held in English and will take place at the READ RUSSIA Pavilion, Olympia Exhibition Centre (Hammersmith Road, London W14 8 UX, Stand 5 F111).
Participants
Joe Dunthorne
Joe Dunthorne was born and brought up in Swansea, and is a graduate of the University of East Anglia's Creative Writing MA, where he was awarded the Curtis Brown prize. His poetry has been published in magazines and anthologies and has featured on Channel 4, and BBC Radio 3 and 4. A pamphlet collection, Joe Dunthorne: Faber New Poets 5 was published in 2010.
His first novel, Submarine, the story of a dysfunctional family in Swansea narrated by Oliver Tate, aged 15, was published in 2008. It was made into a film which premiered at the London Film Festival in 2011. His second novel, Wild Abandon, is about a brother and sister living on a commune in South Wales, and was published in 2011. It was shortlisted for the 2012 Wales Book of the Year Award.
Andrew Dickson
Andrew Dickson is a writer and critic, whose book Worlds Elsewhere: Journeys Around Shakespeare's Globe, a study of Shakespeare's global influence, came out in late 2015. He has also contributed to the New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare (2010). He is an honorary fellow in the English department of Birkbeck College, University of London, and makes regular appearances as a critic and presenter on BBC radio and TV.
Alisa Ganieva
Raised in Dagestan, Alisa Ganieva has lived in Moscow since 2002, where she graduated from the Gorky Literature Institute as a literary critic. She is a writer, journalist and editor at NG - Ex Libris.
Ganieva made her debut under the male pseudonym Gulla Khirachev with Salam Dalgat, a story about the North Caucasus. Her first novel, The Mountain and the Wall, about the possible separation of the Caucasus from Russia and life between Islamism and globalization was shortlisted for the Yasnaya Polyana prize, translated into several languages, and published in Germany, the United States, Spain, Italy, and France. In 2015, Ganieva’s novel Bride and Groom was shortlisted for the Russian Booker and received a special prize – the Institute for Literary Translation’s grant for publication in the United Kingdom. In June 2015, Ganieva was listed by The Guardian as one of the most talented and influential young people living in Moscow.
Doug Wallace
Doug Wallace is a Creative Director of the UK-Russia Year of Language and Literature 2016 organised by the British Council. Doug was born and brought up in Edinburgh. For a year he was studying Russian in Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, he continued his studies of both Russian language and history in the University College London. For over 15 years Doug has been working in publishing sector initiating and implementing international projects in the cultural sphere.
