OXFORD, Miss. – Four Russian writers are scheduled to read from their works and visit with students and others at the University of Mississippi through April 12 as part of a cultural exchange program.
The visiting Russians, Zakhar Prilepin, Dmitry Danilov, Olga Zondberg and Vasily Chepelev, plan to read in a free, public program at 7 p.m. Friday (April 4) in conjunction with the Oxford Conference for the Book in the basement of Boure restaurant in downtown Oxford.
Their appearances at UM include a panel discussion on Russian and American culture at 5 p.m. April 7 at the Overby Center for the Study of Southern Journalism and Politics, and a 7 p.m. reading April 8 in Lewis Auditorium. The events are free and open to the public.
“This is an exciting opportunity for the Ole Miss community to continue cultural ties with the best new Russian writers,” said Doug Robinson, UM professor of English.
Prilepin is a fiction writer, poet and journalist; Danilov is a fiction writer and journalist; Zondberg is a poet and fiction writer; and Chepelev is a poet, fiction writer, translator, literary critic and literary curator.
Visiting the state under the Open World Cultural Leaders Program, the writers are sponsored at Ole Miss by the Department of English and the Croft Institute for International Studies. While on campus, they plan to hold translation workshops with students and faculty in the MFA in creating writing program.
The visitors are also scheduled to tour Rowan Oak and other sites related to Nobel laureate William Faulkner, and they are expected to sample the literary and musical South as they interact with local writers and visit the area’s juke joints and barbecue restaurants.
Prilepin is the author of the novels “Sin,” “Pathology” and “Sanka,” which won the Yasnaya Polyana award. He is general director of the Nizhny Novgorod paper “New Gazette”.
Danilov works as an editor and commentator in the Urgent section of Russian Life magazine. Besides writing the novels “The Black and the Green” and “Building Ten,” he has published stories in journals, yearbooks and on the Internet. Danilov is also a founding member of the literary and art group Osumbez and the Back to Cybersoil movement.
Zondberg is author of the poetry collection “Seven Hours One Minute” and the prose collections “A Very Peaceful Story” and “The Winter Company of Year Zero.” She has worked as a manager and a chemistry teacher, and is an editor/corrector for Consultant Plus.
Chepelev has written “Sverdlovsk Love,” a poetry collection, and two other collections recently published in the journal Vozduhk (Oxygen). He has worked as a hospital orderly, nurse, pediatrician, medical representative and a brand manager. He is creative director for KB-32, a communications agency specializing in marketing technologies.
The Open World Cultural Leaders Program is managed by the independent Open World Leadership Center at the Library of Congress. The program aims to forge better understanding between the United States and Russia by giving emerging American and Russian leaders in the arts unique opportunities to learn about culture and community life in each other’s countries.
For more information or for assistance related to a disability, call the Department of English at 662-915-7439. To arrange interviews with the Russian writers, call Doug Robinson at 662-915-7684. To learn more about the UM Department of English, go to