Maxim D. Shrayer—author, scholar, and translator—will discuss the lives and careers of translingual authors from the former USSR. He will read from his new book, A Russian Immigrant: Three Novellas (Cherry Orchard Books), a literary manifesto of Russian Jews in America. The novellas feature Simon Reznikov, a restless Boston-based immigrant who experiences Providence, New Haven, and Boston, and embarks on pilgrimages to Estonia and Bohemia. Shayer will also comment on writing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Forget all the slapstick, Moscow-on-the-Hudson, burlesque treatments of Jewish Russian émigré life you’ve ever read. If you want the honest, beautifully rendered, and deeply compelling truth about what it’s like to be a Russian immigrant in America, these three braided novellas by the very talented Maxim D. Shrayer are all you need.”
―Eileen Pollack, author of The Bible of Dirty Jokes

Maxim D. Shrayer is Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies at Boston College and Director of the Project on Russian and Eurasian Jewry at the Davis Center. He is the author and editor of over 15 books books, including Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story, Yom Kippur in Amsterdam and Voices of Jewish-Russian Literature. Shrayer is a Guggenheim Fellow and the winner of a National Jewish Book Award. Visit Shrayer’s website at www.shrayer.com.

Speaker(s):

Maxim D. Shrayer, Director, Project on Russian and Eurasian Jewry, Davis Center; Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies, Boston College
Moderator: Alexandra Vacroux, Executive Director, Davis Center; Lecturer on Government, Harvard University

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