Resisting Marginality: A Reading and Conversation by Aleksandr Il’ianen and Ivan Sokolov

Александр Ильянен / Иван Соколов “To be a marginal writer is to be a people’s writer.” Russian writer, winner of the Andrei Bely Prize, and bohemian Aleksandr Il’ianen reads from his legendary novel And the Finn (1989) and talks about his experience as a queer army officer and foreign-language translator in and out of post-socialist St. Petersburg. The talk and the reading are interpreted into English by Ivan Sokolov, a Bay Area-based poet from Petersburg and scholar of Il’ianen’s work. Sokolov also reads some poems from his ongoing manuscript Liberation Chronicles. A Q&A with both authors follows. Sponsored by the Sager Series at Swarthmore College. Fully bilingual (English/Russian). Hosted on April 23, 2021. Additional Information: Aleksandr Il’ianen, among Russia’s most renowned writers and poets, has been described as “one of contemporary queer literature’s most important exponents.” His work emphasizes the fragility of human connection and the possibilities of identity, and his innovative novels, w