Read Russia Launches Russian Literature Week

The organization Read Russia has launched Russian Literature Week!, an annual series of live and online events and publications designed to celebrate and encourage the translation of classic and contemporary Russian literature into English. This year’s celebration will be December 1 – 5.

Read Russia describes the week as “a celebration of Russian literature in translation featuring distinguished authors, translators, editors, publishers, journalists, filmmakers, broadcasters” as well as arts, education, and cultural institutions. In particular, the program will highlight recent translations of Russian literature and new film and online initiatives about Russian literature and book culture from a range of publishers large and small.

Russian Literature Week! 2014 will include live and online events, readings, panel presentations, roundtables, discussions, and film screenings. Leading authors, publishers, and translators will participate in events scheduled for New York City. Here’s a link to the full program.

Read Russia’s initiatives include public events, publications, prizes, and productions in the United States, the United Kingdom, and at literary events worldwide. In 2014, events included panel discussions, readings, and film screenings at the London International Book Fair, the Frankfurt Book Fair, BookExpo America, and other venues including Austin, Texas; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Phoenix, Arizona; and Camden, Maine. 

Read Russia is working with the American Booksellers Association to make DIY online and in-store marketing materials available on BookWeb.org. It is also sponsoring online promotional campaigns featuring video and audio advertisements.

In 2014, Read Russia awarded its inaugural Read Russia Prize for the best translation of Russian literature published in English to Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s Autobiography of a Corpse, translated by Joanne Turnbull with Nikolai Formozov (New York Review Books).

Read Russia, which is based in New York, London, and Moscow, was established in 2012 to celebrate Russian literature and Russian book culture. Sponsors of Read Russia include Russia’s Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communication, Russia’s Institute of Translation, the Boris Yeltsin Foundation in Moscow, the Renova Group in New York, and major philanthropies in Russia.