The novella Stone Dreams by Azerbaijani writer Akram Aylisli caused a sensation when published in 2012. Engaging with the taboo topic of pogroms against Armenians in Azerbaijan, it was hailed as a sensitive and ground-breaking work of literature by some, but led to the vilification and persecution of Aylisli in his native Azerbaijan. Although formerly the country’s most celebrated author, he was stripped of state honours, his books were banned and even publicly burned – and he has been unable to leave the country since 2016.
Join us for an event to mark the publication of a new stand-alone edition of Stone Dreams in English and a discussion on the writer and his work, with Aylisli’s translator and 2022 Pushkin House Translation Residency awardee Katherine E. Young, and Caucasus expert Thomas de Waal. This event will be moderated by Famil Ismailov, News Editor at the BBC Russian Service.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Thomas de Waal is a Senior Fellow with Carnegie Europe and author of numerous publications about the Caucasus region, including Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War (second edition, 2013), The Caucasus, An Introduction (Second edition, 2018) and Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide (2015). Read his recent article on Akram Aylisi here.
Katherine E. Young is the author of the poetry collections Woman Drinking Absinthe (2021) and Day of the Border Guards (2014 Miller Williams Arkansas Poetry Prize finalist). She is the translator of work by Anna Starobinets (Look at Him, 2020), Akram Aylisli (Farewell, Aylis, 2018), and numerous Russophone poets. Awards include the 2022 Pushkin House Translation Residency and a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowship (US). From 2016-2018, she served as the inaugural Poet Laureate for Arlington, Virginia. More on Young’s work with Akram Aylisli here.