Plenary lecture by the writer at the 6th International GRANASLAVIC 2025 conference
Mikhail Shishkin
From Russian literature to literature in the Russian language
in Russian with simultaneous translation into English
When: Monday, 2 June at 09:45 a.m.
Where: Higher Technical School of Architecture (Campo del Príncipe, s/n)
Mikhail Shishkin was born in 1961 in Moscow. He spent his youth working in various jobs as a school teacher, journalist and even a street sweeper. In 1993 he published his first short story 'Calligraphy Lesson' in the literary magazine Znamya. He is considered one of the most important Russian-language writers of our time. He has been awarded major prizes in Russia. In 1995 he moved to Switzerland where he worked as a translator of Russian and German for asylum seekers. In addition to winning Le prix du meilleur livre étranger (2005), he was awarded the Russian Booker Prize (2000). 'Maidenhair' won the National Bestseller Prize-2005 as well as the third Big Book Prize-2006 after its publication in Russia in 2005. Later, he again won the first Big Book Prize-2011 with his novel ‘Pismovnik’ ('Letter Book'). He is also the author of 'War or Peace. Russia and the West. An Approach', one of the most important allegations against Putin's Russia written in recent years. He currently lives in Zurich.