Colta.ru brought to Moscow Sergio de la Pava

Sergio de la Pava, author of the legendary 864-page novel “Naked Singolarity”, will come to Moscow at the end of November as part of the colta.ru project and Pen America “Written in the USA / written in America”.

The writer's lecture, prepared specifically for a meeting with the Russian audience, will be held on November 30 at the International Fair of Intellectual Literature Non/Fiction . A round table with publishers, writers and Sergio de la Pava will take place on December 2 in the F.M. library Dostoevsky. The host of the evenings is a literary critic and journalist Anna Narinskaya.

A few years ago, Sergio de la Pava, a public lawyer from New York, was an unknown author, far from literary circles with their mods and heroes, a writer without connections and useful acquaintances. He wrote his romance in fits and storage, between court hearing and the subway on the way home. He was rejected by dozens of publishers, and it is not surprising: “Naked Singolarity”, an eight -part text about a big city and judicial system, is not like a book that will be widely successful. The novel would not have seen Sveta if the writer’s wife did not insist that he had to be published - at least at his own expense. Surprisingly, he quickly became cult - to such an extent that soon the publishing house of the University of Chicago, which has never been engaged in fiction, bought the rights to reprint.

Now “Naked Singolarity” has entered the top lines of The New Yorker and Wall Street Journal , literary prizes and short lists, earned comparison with Melville and Pinchen, and she has tens of thousands of loyal fans in the English-language world.

An amazing story about writer's courage and well -deserved success is only part of the legend associated with Sergio de la Pava. On his first visit to Russia, the author of two uncompromising novels, written contrary to the literary mainstream, will give a lecture on American literature and writing ambition.

• November 30 at 16:00 - Lecture and Q & A at the International Fair of Intellectual Literature Non/Fiction in the Central House of the Artist (CDH).

• December 2 at 17:00 - discussion in the library named after F.M. Dostoevsky .

Prizes

In October 2010, the literary site The Quarterly Conversation announced the book “ Naked Singularity” “One of the Best and The most original novels of the decade”. The Wall Street Journal included it in the ten best fiction works of 2012. In 2013, Sergio de la Pava received the Pen / Robert W. Bingham Prize literary prize as the author of the best debut novel of the year. In 2014, the book entered the short list of the British Literary Prize "Folio" ( Folo ). In April 2011, de la Pava independently published his second novel Personae . And in September 2013, The University of Chicago Press published a new edition of this book.

About the project

“ Written in the USA / is written in America”-a joint project of online publication about modern culture and society COLTA.RU and the International Association of Writers, Poets and Journalists Pen America . The project represents the Russian audience of American writers whose books were recognized in the United States, but have not yet been translated into Russian. Each visit to Russia of one of the authors is a lecture for a wide audience and large discussions with Russian publishers, translators and journalists dedicated to discussing literary processes in Russia and America. The first author to visit Russia as part of the project was June Lee. The books of June Lee were translated into more than twenty languages, and in 2010 The New Yorker included it in the list of the 20 best writers under the age of 40. In the same year, June Lee received a prestigious scholarship of MacArthur. In April 2017, she attended Moscow, gave a lecture at the Stanislavsky Electr theater and met with Russian colleagues in the F.M. library Dostoevsky.

“Our idea of ​​American literature and American culture is very determined by what is now translated into Russian. These are mainly first -level bestsellers. Wonderful books and authors, whose work does not fit into the logic of “Big Roman”, remain aside. And this is an important part of different, interesting and expressive literature. We decided to contrast this logic with a direct acquaintance with writers. This is an unfamiliar America for us, America, which we do not know. The authors that we bring represent different parts of the spectrum - and it turns out that our idea of ​​American literature still needs an amendment and you can add a lot of things to it, ”says Maria Stepanova, editor -in -chief of Colta.ru.

The organizers of the festival: colta.ru and Pen America

COLTA.RU - the main site in Russia on culture and society. This is a project of the same team that created and made for five years a well -known OpenSpace.ru site. Colta.ru exists according to a revolutionary new model for Russian media: it is a public media, an independent publication that exists without the help of the state, without hosts and investors, exclusively on grants and donations of readers. The project is supported by professionals in all fields of culture. The trusteeship of the site includes Irina Prokhorova, Alexander Rodnyansky, Julia Shakhnovskaya, Demyan Kudryavtsev, Dmitry Borisov and many others.

Pen America is a non -governmental organization, the purpose of which is to protect the free expression of opinions in the United States and around the world. We fight for the right of writers to freely express our thoughts, recognizing the power of the word in the transformation of the world. Our mission is in the unification of the writer's community in order to promote creative statement and protect rights and freedoms, thanks to which it is possible.

Project partners: Library named after F.M. Dostoevsky, International Fair of Intellectual Literature Non/Fiction .

Information partners: