Calendar

Loading Events

« All Events

  • This event has passed.

Andrey Yuryevich Kurkov (Ukranian Novelist) Event

May 12, 2022 @ 11:00 am - 12:30 pm

| Free

Please join us on Thursday, May 12, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. in the Detroit Room to welcome Ukrainian Author Andrey Kurkov.

 Andrey Yuryevich Kurkov  was born April 23, 1961 in LeningradUSSR.  He is a Ukrainian author and public intellectual who writes in Russian.  He is the author of 19 novels, including the bestselling Death and the Penguin, nine books for children, and about 20 documentary, fiction and TV movie scripts.  His work is currently translated into 37 languages, including English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Swedish, Persian and Hebrew, and published in 65 countries.   Mr. Kurkov, who has long been a respected commentator on Ukraine for the international media, notably in Europe and the United States, has written assorted articles for various publications worldwide.  His books are full of black humourpost-Soviet reality and elements of surrealism.

Mr. Kurkov has received several awards throughout the years, including the Readers’ Prize in Basel (Switzerland) in 2002, Write of the Year in 2001 (Ukraine), International Nikolai Gogol Prize (Rome, Italy 2012), the Readers Choice Prize for “The Gardener of Ochakov” (Cognack, France 2012).  Mr. Kurkov is the President of PEN Ukraine, a non-profit dedicated to protecting authors’ freedom of speech.

After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Kurkov became an internally displaced person.  He continues to write about the war and, in his role as president of PEN Ukraine, he has been monitoring the number of Ukrainian writers, poets and translators who have been killed.  He regularly speaks to international audiences about the reality of living through a 21st century war of aggression against his own country.

Former AUSA John Engstrom, who recently was assigned the USDOJ to the US Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, but was evacuated just before the invasion, has made arrangements for the prominent Ukrainian author and novelist, Andrey Kurkov to visit our court for a presentation.

Please join us on Thursday, May 12, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. in the Detroit Room.

Light refreshments will be served.

 

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Andrey Kurkov was born 23 April 1961 in Leningrad, Russia) is a Ukrainian novelist and writer. He is the author of 20 novels, including his bestselling Death of a Penguin and most recent Grey Bees, and 10 books for children. His work is currently translated into 37 languages, including English, Japanese, French, Chinese, Swedish and Hebrew. He has also written assorted articles for various publications worldwide including New York Times, The Guardian, New Statesman, La Liberation, Le Monde, Die Welt, Die Zeit. Apart from literature Andrey Kurkov is regularly involved in filmscript-writing. His own film adaptation of “The Matter of Death and Life” got him shortlisted for Best European Filmscript-Writer of the Year Award in Berlin 1997.(The film’s title is “The Friend of the Deceased” (France-Ukraine, 1997). The same year he was invited to join European Film Academy (EFA).

Over the years, Kurkov has received several awards, including the Readers’ Prize in Basel (Switzerland) in 2002, Writer of the Year in 2001 (Ukraine), International Nikolai Gogol Prize (Rome, Italy, 2012), The Readers Choice Prize for “The Gardener of Ochakov” (Cognack, France, 2012). Kurkov is the President of PEN Ukraine, a non-profit dedicated to protecting authors’ freedom of speech.

Kurkov is currently in the United States for speaking events in New York City and Washington D.C. sponsored by PEN International. He is visiting Detroit at the invitation of former EDMI AUSA John Engstrom. His novel are full of black humor, post-Soviet reality, absurdism, and magical realism. His writing style has been compared to Kurt Vonnegut and Elmore Leonard.

After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kurkov became an internally displaced person. He continues to write about the war and, in his role as president of PEN Ukraine, he has been monitoring the number of Ukrainian writers, poets and translators who have been killed. He regularly speaks to international audiences about the reality of living through a 21st century war of aggression against his own country.

Details

Date:
May 12, 2022
Time:
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Cost:
Free
Event Category:

Organizer

John Engstrom, former AUSA

Venue

Detroit Room, Theodore Levin Courthouse
231 West Lafayette
Detroit, 48226 United States
+ Google Map