Lecture by Andrey Kurkov
“Ukrainians have never accepted censorship. They have always wanted to say and write what they thought. That is why almost all Ukrainian writers and poets of the 1920s and the 1930s were shot by the Soviet authorities… If Russia succeeds, another executed generation of Ukrainian writers and politicians, philosophers and philologists may appear.”
Andrey Kurkov is one of the foremost writers of Ukraine today, having published closed to 30 books for adults and children, among them Death and the Penguin and Grey Bees. He has been translated into more than 30 languages.
As the leader of PEN Ukraine, Kurkov has taken a clear stand against Russia’s invasion war and for Ukrainian independence and freedom of speech. He has written several novels about the post-Soviet reality and Ukraine’s relationship to Russia. Now, however, he has put aside the novel he is currently working on, in order to speak up for Ukrainians to the rest of the world.
How do you fight for freedom of speech and facts in a propaganda war? What can art and literature offer in dark times? And when does the situation require that the writer reaches for other tools and weapons?
In this lecture, Kurkov will talk about the situation for Ukrainian writers and journalists, and about the role of literature and the free word in the fight for a free country.
The lecture will be in English. All proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to PEN Ukraine.
Litteraturhuset Wergeland https://litteraturhuset.ticketco.events/no/nb/e/fri_tanke_fritt_land English