The Next Generation: Contemporary Russian Children’s and Young Adult Literature

£5 Р£8

With the rise in popularity of YA literature in Russia, we ask three Russian publishing professionals to shine a light on contemporary Russian Children’s and YA books and authors.

Children’s publisher Ekaterina Kashirskaya (founder of A Walk Through History), YA publisher Satenik Anastasian (Editor-in-Chief of Popcorn Books) and Denis Beznosov (Head of the Cultural Programmes at the Russian State Children’s Library) will discuss what young people are reading in Russia, what they are excited about as publishers and literature professionals, the challenges to publishing, and the influence of international trends with Antonia Lloyd-Jones.

Book tickets

This event is organised by English PEN and the British Council as part of a ‘Future Culture’ Literature and Publishing Study Visit to the UK  

Satenik is a graduate of the Moscow State University of Printing Arts. During her publishing career she worked as a senior editor at Rosman (children’s literature), managing editor at UMKA (children’s literature) and managing editor at AST (children’s and YA literature), and has published around 300 titles for children and young adults. In 2018, she launched and became Editor-in-Chief of Popcorn Books as an imprint of Bookmate Digital, and created the first diverse and LGBT+ oriented publishing house in Russia.

Denis manages and coordinates large-scale library projects focused on encouraging reading among children and teenagers. He develops interactive exhibitions, based on works of prominent Russian children’s authors and designed for children implementing innovative technologies. He organises annual cultural events and book fairs at prominent venues in Moscow, including the Moscow International Book Fair and the Red Square Book Festival. He is currently on the steering committee for the upcoming International Congress of IBBY (Moscow 2020). Denis is also a poet and a literary translator.

Ekaterina was educated at Moscow State University, received her MSc at the University of Essex (UK) and further training at the European Graduate School of Child Neuropsychology in the Netherlands. Since 2010, she has been the founder and managing director of A Walk Through History publishing house, specialising in primarily non-fiction children’s books. More than 50 unique titles detail various periods of history (world and Russian) and diverse themes have been designed with the help of professional historians and child psychologists.

Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Antonia Lloyd-Jones translates from Polish, and is the 2018 winner of the Transatlantyk Award for the most outstanding promoter of Polish literature abroad. She has translated works by several of Poland’s leading contemporary novelists and reportage authors, as well as crime fiction, poetry and children’s books. She is a mentor for the Emerging Translators’ Mentorship Programme, and former co-chair of the UK Translators Association.