The latest achievements and trends in contemporary Russian publishing and literature will be presented by the Russian stand at the London Book Fair, Earls Court, April 20-22. The Russian stand will also be part of Russian Literature Week, which has been organised by the British foundation Academia Rossica.
The stand will not only present top Russian publishers but host discussions, presentations, press conferences and seminars devoted to exploring collaboration with foreign publishers. The 25 Russian publishers taking part in the fair include Eksmo, Ast, Art House Media and Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie.
The Russian exhibition will include top publishers in Russia, contemporary Russian writers, Russia's literary prizes, the year's best books and books by Russian authors published abroad.
Books recently published in English include A Jewish God in Paris by Mikhail Levitin, Minus by Roman Senchin, Sea Stories by Alexander Pokrovsky and Army Stories by Alexander Terekhov.
Day two of the LBF (April 21) will be devoted to contemporary Russian writers. Presentations and meetings between writers and Russian literature specialists, journalists, publishers and literary agents will go on all day. Famous Russian writers such as Vladimir Makanin, Dmitri Bykov, Olga Slavnikova, Mikhail Shishkin, Alexander Terekhov and Alexander Arkhangelsky will be attending.
They will take part in seminars on the situation in contemporary Russian literature and publishing.
As in 2008, the Russian stand will also take part in Russian Literature Week (April 20-26), an event organised by Academia Rossica. This is the most significant annual project for the promotion of Russian language and literature in Great Britain. Russian writers, literary scholars and publishers will appear every night at Waterstone's in Piccadilly, the largest bookshop in Europe. The event will also present a new anthology of contemporary Russian literature in English. This will be the second of its kind (the first was published in April 2008); it will be sent to British and American libraries, universities and other learning institutions, to English-language publishers, the press and literary agents.
Also scheduled are talks by Russian writers at some of Britain's leading universities - Cambridge, Oxford, Bristol, Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester and Edinburgh - as well as meetings with Russians who live in those areas. Meanwhile, top British translators will give masterclasses.
Finally, on April 22, the shortlist for the Rossica Prize - the only prize in the world solely for Russian-to-English literary translations - will be announced at the literary café of the English PEN club. The long list for 2009 includes a record 57 translations of Russian classics.
The increasing number of translations of new Russian literature into English attests to the growing interest among Britons and Americans in contemporary authors. This year's translations will bring Vladimir Sorokin, Viktor Pelevin, Alexander Terekhov, Maria Galina and Andrei Rubanov, among others, to English-language audiences.
The Rossica Prize was created in 2005 by Academia Rossica and the Yeltsin Foundation. An award of £5,000 will be divided between the translator and publisher of the winning book.
