Bibliotopia 2023 | Interview with Maria Stepanova and Monika Sznajderman

« Into the Family Archives, the Uncertainty and Value of Memory. »
Moderated by Daniel Medin

Maria Stepanova, a Russian journalist, poet and essayist, founder of the cultural magazine Colta.ru, has won the Bolshaya Kniga Prize. Her writing has been translated into nearly thirty languages. « In Memory of Memory » (tr. Sasha Dugdale, Fitzcarraldo, 2021, International Booker Prize shortlist) interrogates the relationship between memory and personal, familial and political history. Faced with the fragments of memory, we question its value.

Monika Sznajderman, an anthropologist, runs the Polish publishing house Czarne, co-founded with her husband, the writer Andrzej Stasiuk. She is also the author of several books, including « Faux poivre » (Noir sur Blanc, tr. into French Caroline Raszka-Dewez), a personal and collective investigation that lifts the veil of silence covering her childhood against the background of complex Polish history.

Jan Michlaksi Foundation, 1 April 2023