Truth, Lies, and Literature: Andrey Kurkov in Conversation

What can fiction do that journalism can’t? And when is literature not enough? Ithaca City of Asylum presents a conversation with Ukrainian author and human rights advocate Andrey Kurkov. 

Kurkov, who will Zoom in from Kyiv, will speak with writer, editor, and translator Boris Dralyuk, whose translation of Kurkov’s latest novel, Grey Bees, won the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award for Translated Fiction.

Andrey Kurkov is one of Ukraine’s best-known novelists. The author of more than 20 books, he is based in Kyiv, where he is currently writing a war diary in English and working on a variety of fiction projects. Grey Bees, which was first published in 2018, tells the story of a retired mine safety inspector turned beekeeper living in the "gray zone" between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian positions after the 2014 war.

“Truth, Lies, and Literature: Andrey Kurkov in Conversation” is part of the 2023 Ithaca is Books festival. The event is co-presented by Story House Ithaca and made possible in part with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants program from the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the office of the Governor and NYS Legislature, and from Tompkins County, administered by the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County.

The event is free but registration is required. Register here.