The next episode on Dovzhenko's "Zvenyhora" is coming! Working my way through a research rabbithole. In the meantime, check out an older episode: Vasily Grossman's The People Immortal. Less mature than his later work, it nonetheless shows his immense commitment to truth.

Out today! I sat down with Rosamund Bartlett and Elena Michajlowska to talk about their new book: Anton Chekhov, Earliest Stories: Stories, Novellas, Humoresques, 1880-1882. The collection covers Chekhov's earliest published stories, a great insight into his juvenile writing!

Happy Friday! A short delay on the way to the cherry orchard, but you'll hear our new episode soon.

Happy New Year, everybody! The Slavic Lit Pod has one last gift from 2025: Sayat Nova (1969), directed by Sergei Parajanov. Plus! I watched a lot of films last year, so here are five that I really liked. (It's on YouTube, too, so you can see what I'm talking about)

A little late, but out today: The latest For Your Consideration explores Ilya Kaminsky's Deaf Republic and Hai Fan's Delicious Hunger. "THE PEOPLE ARE DEAF," declares Sonya's sign in the face of occupying soldiers, as Deaf Republic explores how the town of Vasenka resists them.

Hey, did you catch it? My latest For Your Consideration continues Yevgenia Belorusets' reflections on Ukraine under war in "War Diary," plus a detour into Barcelona to explore a women's life through the Spanish Civil War in Mercè Rodoreda's "The Time of Doves."

Out today! For your consideration: Lucky Breaks by Yevgenia Belorusets and The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Both collections document the stories of people in war -- in Ukraine and in Vietnam -- guiding their readers with a blend of fact and fiction.

Out today! For Your Consideration: Alindarka's Children by Alhierd Bacharevič and Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. Both novels tackle the problems of people native to a land that is now hostile to them, in one way or another.

Psst -- did you miss it? A new For Your Consideration, looking back on some books that have profoundly influenced my life. We'll go from the beautiful prose of William T. Vollmann's Europe Central to complicated memories in Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood.

Out Today: A new sub-series I'm called "For Your Consideration," solo episodes covering books I think are worth reading. We're tackling creative license on your own life in Teffi's Tolstoy, Rasputin, Others, and Me -- plus Tim O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods.

Out Today: Inessa Fishbeyn and C. D. C. Reeve joined me to talk about Marina Tsvetaeva's The Story of Sonechka. Tsvetaeva's book recalls her relationship with the actress Sonia Holliday, opening questions about memory, how we see each other, and Tsvetaeva's queer relationships.

Out Today: I sat down with Dr. Vitaly Chernetsky to talk about Ukrainian writer Yuri Andrukhovych's magical realist novel The Moscoviad. We chatted about how colonized people experience imperial core, the so-called friendship of peoples, and how Andrukhovych subverts machismo.

Out now: I sat down with Ainsley Morse and Bela Shayevich to talk about I Live I See, poems by Vsevolod Nekrasov that they collected and translated. Tune in to hear us talk about his minimalist, repetitious style and an unusual first: a poem delivered by snapping.

This gofundme supports a UBC international student who is trying to finish her degree and needs some financial help to pay tuition. Please read and consider supporting! www.gofundme.com/f/help-an-in...

Out Today: I sat down with Yaroslav Barsukov to talk about his book Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory. We chatted about his deployment of personal and national memory, metaphorical resurrection, and how Barsukov complicates his themes. Get it anywhere you listen to podcasts!

Out today: Don your cherkeska and round up the horses, we're talking Leo Tolstoy's Hadji Murat. I sat down with Dr. Tatyana Gershkovich to chat about the book, Tolstoy's conceptions of art, and her book, Art in Doubt. Listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts!

Out today: I chatted with Baqytgul Sarmekova about her translation of Baqytgul Sarmekova's To Hell with Poets. Our conversation covers Sarmekova's portrayal of Kazakh society, how she tangles with violence and disappointment, and its tentative hopefulness.

Out Today: I sat down with Philip J. Metres and Dimitri Psurtsev to chat about Arseny Tarkovsky's poems in I Burned at the Feast. Tune in to hear about his work, his relationship to Anna Akhmatova/Marina Tsvetaeva, and his relationship to his son, Andrei Tarkovsky. tinyurl.com/slaviclitpod

Out today: I sat down with Dominique Hoffman to speak about Olena Stiazhkina's Cecil the Lion had to Die. The novel follows four Ukrainian families over several decades, touching on identify formation, relationships, mental health, and the war. Find it wherever you get your podcasts!

Comrade Reader, As the Slavic Literature Pod nears the completion of its Gosplan-approved five year plan, we have a fairly large change to announce: Our podcast, as it was, is going on hiatus. It’s not exactly gone either, though, so let us explain.

I created a thing! It is definitely missing people - if you are a person who should be on it, pls let me know! go.bsky.app/8HazBeR

Me opening up Bluesky after not posting for ten months

Starting off the @slaviclitpod.bsky.social chapter-a-day read of Grossman’s Life and Fate. It’s right up my philosophical alley from chapter one. “Everything living is unique. […] Life dies out wherever violence tries to erase its originality and particularities.”

I'm permanent-inking this in my schedule (hark at me! I do not have a schedule) for next year. I'll most likely only lurk but I want to get started already!

JANUARY ON THE SLAVIC LITERATURE POD! If you're excited about what's coming, please consider supporting us this December: slaviclitpod.com/sos

SAVE OUR SHOW! To help us shoulder the costs of running our show, this December we are launching the SAVE OUR SHOW pledge drive. If you love this show and want to help keep it ad-free, please consider becoming a monthly supporter on our website. slaviclitpod.com/sos

Okay, count me in. Already have my yellowing 2010 edition on hand; will get the Chandler translation before January... Something for the winter season ahead

This week, Matt and Cameron wrap up Mikhail Bulgakov’s Soviet-era masterpiece The Master and Margarita, covering chapters 26 to the epilogue. Major themes: Comedy in translation, Ivan as creative process, PG shootouts for Americans slaviclitpod.com/the-master-a...

I’m in, this may be my one chance to make it all the way through Life and Fate.

Planning on reading along with us during our Life and Fate series? Make sure to get your copy soon! For the read along, we're going to be exclusively reading from NYRB's edition translated by Robert Chandler. Don't forget to sign up for emails here: slaviclitpod.com/lifeandfate24/

What are you most excited for this November on our podcast??

This week, Matt and Cameron get into their tuxes for a Devil’s Ball celebrated all the way from across the skies to the distorted apartments of Moscow, covering chapters 19 through 25 of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. slaviclitpod.com/the-master-a...

Our episode on the first half of Guzel Yakhina's A Volga Tale is now live! Major themes: Fairy tales, women with “K” names, justified societal shunning slaviclitpod.com/a-volga-tale...

We're going to space! Our episode on Andrei Tarkovsky's 1972 film Solaris is now live. Join us as we discuss some of humanity's most burning philosophical questions like: should astronauts wear leather jackets? slaviclitpod.com/solaris/

Here might be a good place to mention that next year we will be running a chapter a day read along for Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate! More info here: slaviclitpod.com/lifeandfate24

Hey there, Mr...... Bluesky