Events

VISITING RUSSIAN AUTHORS SPUR CROSS-CULTURAL DIALOGUE Writers’ Chapel Hill Visit to Include Reading at Flyleaf Books April 26, Panel Discussion at UNC-Chapel Hill April 27 Four Russian authors will be the guests of the Slavic Languages and Literatures Department at UNC-Chapel Hill April 21- 28 as part of a program to encourage cross-cultural communication through the arts. In a time when contemporary Russian literature remains largely isolated due to linguistic, cultural and economic barriers, their visit is an important step towards including the country’s present-day authors in the global literary discourse. Poets Inga Kuznetsova, Pavel Nastin, and Natalia Sannikova, and prose writer Sergei Sokolovskiy were selected for the program through a competitive nomination process.  The Chapel Hill portion of their residency will include two public events, giving local audiences a rare opportunity to see the vibrant new talents coming out of Russia’s literary scene. New Russian Literature:  A Bilingual Reading Monday, April 26th, 7:00 pm Flyleaf Books, 752 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Chapel Hill, NC The four writers represent different regions of Russia, including not only the nation’s capital but also Kaliningrad, its European exclave, and Kamensk-Uralsky, an industrial city in the Ural Mountains. Their work is equally diverse, ranging from metaphysical poetry to gritty short prose. Yet despite their varied backgrounds, they are united by the shared experience of writing in post-Soviet Russia, where the tradeoff for a newfound freedom of speech is the challenge of artistic survival in an uncertain, profit-driven economic environment. This will be the first trip to the United States for all four participants. Their visit is part of the Open World Cultural Leaders Program, an endeavor of the Open World Leadership Center at the Library of Congress with partnership and funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.  In line with the program’s goal of stimulating cross-cultural communication, the writers will meet with a variety American literary peers, students, and faculty, as well as enjoy cultural activities in the Chapel Hill area during their residency.  This will be the fifth year that UNC-Chapel Hill partners with CEC ArtsLink, a New York City-based nonprofit organization, to host such a group. On April 28, the writers will continue on to New York City to take part in a series of readings and panel discussions at the PEN World Voices Festival, joining over 150 writers from 40 countries. This is the first time that Russia is represented by this many writers at the festival, now in its sixth year.  After the festival, the group will give an additional public reading in New York City on May 3rd before returning to Russia. # # # CEC ArtsLink, through a multi-faceted program of cultural exchange, serves to create and sustain constructive, mutually beneficial relationships in the arts between the United States and Eastern and Central Europe, Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus.  Working with artists, arts organizations and community-based groups, CEC ArtsLink provides an essential structure for ongoing dialogue, contributing to a culture of openness and trust between nations.   With years of experience as a leader in cultural exchange between the United States and Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus, CEC ArtsLink has long been a behind-the-scenes player in numerous esteemed cultural events, as a supporter and facilitator of residencies, projects, and networks for artists and art managers at venues across the U.S. and around the world.  Today, we are pleased to bring an on-going series of cultural events to the public through our partnerships in New York, around the United States, and abroad.  Visit www.cecartslink.org for more about upcoming events and on-going projects. Open World’s Cultural Leaders Program aims to forge better understanding between the United States and Russia by enabling emerging Russian leaders in the arts to experience America’s cultural and community life, and to work with their American counterparts.  Support for the cultural program is provided through partnership and funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.  Open World is a unique, nonpartisan initiative of the U.S. Congress.  Delegates range from judges to mayors, from innovative nonprofit directors to experienced journalists, and from political party activists to regional administrators.  Over 11,000 Open World participants have been hosted in all 50 U.S. states since the program’s inception in 1999. The UNC Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, the oldest Ph.D.-granting program in Slavic languages and literatures in the southern United States, first offered courses leading to a graduate degree in 1965 and became established as an independent department in 1969. The department’s research specializations include versification, literary translation, literary critical theory, literature and Orthodox theology, gender studies, literature and the Holocaust, performing arts studies, and émigré culture. The curriculum provides students with instruction in five Slavic/East European languages (Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Serbian and Croatian) and extensive coverage of topics in the literatures and cultures of Russia/the Soviet Union, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Serbia and Croatia. For more information and to arrange interviews with the Russian writers during their stay in North Carolina, please contact Prof. Christopher Putney, Chair, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, UNC-Chapel Hill at (919) 962-7548 or crputney@email.unc.edu.    For more information please see the attached flyers