• Marian Schwartz is a prize-winning translator of Russian fiction, history, biography, criticism, and fine art. She is the principal English translator of the works of Nina Berberova and translated the New York Times bestseller The Last Tsar, by Edvard Radzinsky, as well as classics by Mikhail Bulgakov, Ivan Goncharov, Yuri Olesha, and Mikhail Lermontov. Her most recent book translations are Andrei Gelasimov's Thirst (AmazonCrossing), Valery Panyushkin's Twelve Who Don't Agree (Europa Editions), and Olga Slavnikova's 2017 (Overlook Press). Her translations of Mikhail Bulgakov's White Guard and Ivan Goncharov’s Oblomov are now out in paperback from Yale University Press. She is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowships and is a past president of the American Literary Translators Association.

Advance publicity for Andrei Gelasimov’s “Thirst”

1 e4e008b08d Advance publicity for Andrei Gelasimov’s “Thirst”

AmazonCrossing will be publishing my translation of Andrei Gelasimov’s Thirst in November, and to whet the public’s appetite they’re offering an excerpt from the novel, which you can download here.

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“Luminous Translation” of Olga Slavnikova’s “2017”

Phoebe Taplin writes a rave review of “2017” for Russia Beyond the Headlines:

Olga Slavnikova’s ‘2017,’ set on the anniversary of the revolution, is so packed full of ideas and images it threatens to explode.

And, she goes on to say,

Slavnikova’s strange, genre-defying novel, winner of the 2006 Russian Booker Prize, finally made it into English in Marian Schwartz’s luminous translation.

To read the review in full, click here.

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Praise for Valery Panyushkin’s “12 Who Don’t Agree”

summer2011 12who thumb 540xauto 2656 Praise for Valery Panyushkin’s “12 Who Don’t Agree”The USA network has recommended my translation of Valery Panyushkin’s 12 WHO DON’T AGREE (just out from Europa Editions) as one of their ‘Top Five’ summer reads:

In November 2007, hundreds of Russians filled the streets of Moscow to protest against Vladimir Putin, even though their government had made public demonstrations illegal. Valery Panyushkin, one of the nation’s most outspoken journalists, spoke with a dozen of those protestors for 12 Who Don’t Agree, including world chess champion Garry Kasparov, to draw out the personal accounts of what inspired them to take a stand… and how they fared against the inevitable crackdown.

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Natalia Klyuchareva’s “None of Your Business”

Words Without Borders has published my translation of Natalia Klyuchareva’s fine story, “None of Your Business.” Born in 1981, Natalia Klyuchareva is a Moscow journalist. She won the Debut Prize in 2002 and the Yuri Kazakov Literary Prize for short stories in 2007.

For a long time the fact that the Krivovs drank was something only their son knew. When it began, Yurka had just started first grade. In the beginning, the Krivovs were embarrassed by their disease and drank together in their smoked-up apartment.  

Perched on the windowsill behind the curtain, Yurka would draw squiggles on his writing assignments, memorize the poem about "the forest, like a tower chamber painted" to the sound of his parents’ droning, and glue colored paper cutouts.

No one at school suspected a thing.  

To read the full story, click here.

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Mikhail Shishkin Wins Major International Prize

Maidenhair, by Mikhail Shishkin, which I am currently translating for Open Letter Books, has just won the International Literature Award for its German translation.

My publisher at Open Letter, Chad Post, writes:

Every year, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and the foundation “Elementarteilchen” award the International Literature Award to the best book translated into German. This year, they gave the prize (25,000 Euro for the author and 10,000 for the translator) to Mikhail Shishkin and Andreas Tretner for the translation of VenushaarMaidenhair, available from DVA.

Congratulations to Mikhail Shishkin and Andreas Tretner!

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LA Times Makes “Twelve Who Don’t Agree” a Summer Read

My translation of Valery Panyushkin’s Twelve Who Don’t Agree (due out in June from Europa Editions) is on the LA Times’ recommended summer reading list! Panyushkin, a journalist, tells brilliant stories of oppositionists with highly disparate backgrounds and political experiences whose lives eventually intersected with the Strategy-31 campaign.

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