Discipline: Literature

Yuz Aleshkovsky

Discipline: Literature
Region: Middlebury, VT
MacDowell Fellowships: 1981, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987
Yuz Aleshkovsky writes poetry, prose, and screenplays and is noted for his colorful nonconformist works and pioneering uses of expletives in Russian literature. He began his literary career in the early 1950s by writing screenplays and children’s stories, later moving on to write works that could only be published unofficially during the Soviet era, as samizdat. He emigrated in the late 1970s. Aleshkovsky’s work is marked by satire, prison camp themes, and vernacular language, including creative uses of words unable to pass prim Soviet censors. Several of his novels, including Kangaroo and The Hand, have been translated into English, and his most recent book, A Little Prison Novel, won the Russian Prize in April 2012.

Studios

Sorosis

Yuz Aleshkovsky worked in the Sorosis studio.

Sorosis Studio was funded by the New York Carol Club of Sorosis. The small, masonry studio was designed by F. Winsor, Jr., the architect who also designed Savidge Library (1926) and Mixter Studio (1927). At the time of construction, the large porch on the southeast façade offered a spectacular mountain view that has since been obscured…

Learn more