April 30 | CUNY Graduate Center | NYC

With T.J. Clark, Wendy Lesser, Michael Ondaatje, and Francine Prose

One of the masters of 20th century Russian literature, Andrey Platonov is a writer of haunting purity and startling originality. A supporter of the Revolution, Platonov responded both to its utopian promise and to the terror it unleashed in fiction of extraordinary stylistic radicalism. Contemporary writers will read from Platonov’s work, celebrating a solitary genius who, like Kafka or Malevich, tested and transformed the limits of art. Edwin Frank, NYRB Classics series editor will introduce.

Cosponsored by NYRB Classics and The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, CUNY

PHOTO GALLERY
• View the photo gallery on Flickr

PEN Blogs

• Elise Blackwell:
During the question-and-answer period of the panel on the work of Andrey Platonov, a member of the deeply engaged (if somewhat small) audience referenced Joseph Brodsky’s memorable claim that Dostoyevky’s literary descendent was Kafka, while Tolstoy’s line yielded Margaret Mitchell. [More]