Mikhail Shishkin (writer)

Mikhail Pavlovich Shishkin (, born 18 January 1961) is a Russian-Swiss writer and the only author to have won the Russian Booker Prize (2000), the Russian National Bestseller (2005), and the Big Book Prize (2010). His books have been translated into 30 languages. He also writes in German.

Biography

Mikhail Shishkin was born in Moscow on 18 January 1961 to Irina Georgievna Shishkina, a Russian literature teacher, and Pavel Mikhailovich Shishkin, an engineer constructor. In 1977 Shishkin graduated from high school #59 in Arbat district in the centre of Moscow.

After graduation from Moscow State Pedagogical Institute, where Shishkin studied German and English, he worked as a road worker, street sweeper, journalist, school teacher, and translator.

In 1995, Shishkin moved to Switzerland for family reasons. He worked in Zürich within the Immigration Department and specifically with refugees as a Russian and German translator. He has Swiss citizenship.

Shishkin was invited as a guest professor to Washington and Lee University in Lexington (VA) (fall semester 2007 and 2009). Since 2011 Shishkin has lived with his family in the small village of Kleinlützel near Basel.

Shishkin was a guest of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program in Berlin from 2012 to 2013. He is a frequent guest lecturer at universities and cultural foundations across Europe and the United States and a frequent speaker on television and radio in many countries.

Shishkin has published articles in ''The New York Times'', ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The Guardian'', ''Le Monde'', ''The Independent'', and other media outlets.

Literary career

His first novel ''One Night Befalls Us All'' (''Omnes una manet nox'') / ''Всех ожидает одна ночь'' also appeared the same year in Znamya. Later this novel was published under the title ''Larionov's Reminiscences'' / ''Записки Ларионова''. His first publications attracted the attention of literary critics and Shishkin received the Prize for the Best Debut of the Year. Fred Kaplan called Mikhail Shishkin in Boston Globe "one of Moscow´s most wellregarded young novelists".

In 1999, Znamya published Shishkin's breakthrough novel ''The Taking of Izmail''. In 2000 the novel won Russian Booker Prize for the best Russian novel of the year. ''Nezavisimaya gazeta'' wrote: "A beautiful, powerful and fascinating book which will become a milestone not only in the history of Russian literature but in the development of Russian self-awareness."

His experience of moving to a new country inspired Shishkin to write ''Russian Switzerland'' / ''Русская Швейцария'', a nonfiction literary-historical guide. In 1999 it was published by PANO-Verlag in Zürich (in Russian). This book was translated into German and French and received the award of Canton of Zürich (Werkbeitrag des Kantons Zürich 2000).

In 2002, Limmat Verlag in Zürich released Shishkin's book written in German ''Montreux-Missolunghi-Astapowo: Tracing Byron and Tolstoy, a literary walk from Lake Geneva to the Bern Alps'' which received the literary award of Zürich (Werkjahr der Stadt Zürich 2002).

In 2005, Shishkin published the novel ''Maidenhair'', receiving the National Bestseller award 2005 and Big Book Award 2006. Maya Kucherskaya, a critic, described Shishkin's novel in the following manner: "''Maidenhair'' is a great novel about a word and a language that becomes soft and obedient in the hands of a Master. It can create any other reality which will be more stunning and credible that the real world. The gap between a word and a fact, between reality and its translation to the human language is a real hotbed of internal tension in the novel". ''Moscow News'' stated, "The writer tries to connect the achievements of Western literature of the XX century and its love for verbal technique with the humanistic nature of Russian literature. His new novel speaks about the most important subject: how to defeat death with love."

The novel in the English translation published by Open Letter in 2012 was highly praised by critics. Daniel Kalder in The Dallas Morning News stated: "In short, Maidenhair is the best post-Soviet Russian novel I have read. Simply put, it is true literature, a phenomenon we encounter too rarely in any language." Boris Dralyuk wrote in The Times Literary Supplement that "Shishkin's prodigious erudition, lapidary phrasing and penchant for generic play are conspicuous components of his art...These characteristics do indeed ally him with Nabokov, as does his faith in the power of the written word: "The story is the hand, and you're the mitt. Stories change you, like mitts. You have to understand that stories are living beings"."

In 2010, the novel ''Pismovnik'' (Letter-Book) was published by AST in Moscow. It won him the main Russian literary Prize "Bolshaya kniga" - the author received the main award of the Big Book Prize (2011) and won the reader choice vote.

The English translation of ''Pismovnik'' was published under the title ''The Light and the Dark'' by Quercus in 2013. The Wall Street Journal praised the author: "Mr. Shishkin has created a bewitching potion of reality and fantasy, of history and fable, and of lonely need and joyful consolation." Monocle stated: "His latest novel, ''The Light and the Dark'', in its brilliant translation, is striking proof that great Russian literature didn't die with Dostoevsky. The prose is lapidary, the evocation of history and the present razor-sharp. A wonderful book: it is filled with wonder." The Sunday Times called Shishkin "a writer with a compelling sense of the skull beneath the skin." The New York Times Book Review described Shishkin as "a proud sentimentalist. (The gold medal for synchronized cynicism and sentimentalism will always go to Russia.)" The Guardian wrote: "Both novels attempt to represent multifaceted reality, and there is sometimes an unbearable intensity as the metaphors sprout and writhe. The breathlessness of Maidenhair becomes, in The Light and the Dark, a more measured brilliance; the urgency of Shishkin's mission is undimmed. "Unless life is transformed into words, there will be nothing." ...Shishkin's writing is both philosophically ambitious and sensually specific."

In 2015
Deep Vellum Publishing
released ''Calligraphy Lesson: The Collected Stories''. Michael Orthofer in Complete Review called the book "an ideal introduction to Shishkin and his work". According to critic Jacob Kiernan (New Orleans Review),"the collection consists of artfully constructed, empathetic tales of people living in the midst cyclonic time." Caroline North wrote in Dallas Observer: "Though the stories in CALLIGRAPHY LESSON are steeped in Russian history and have a distinctly Russian tone, many of the philosophical quandaries they engage extend beyond language and borders ― they are universal problems, and this translation boldly and successfully takes them on."

Translations of the works of Mikhail Shishkin have received numerous international awards, including the 2007 Grinzane Cavour Prize (Italy) for ''Capelvenere'' (Italian translation of ''Maidenhair''), the French literary prize for the best foreign book of the year 2005 - Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Essay) in Paris and The International Berlin Prize (Haus der Kulturen der Welt) International Literature Award

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