Elif Batuman
(1977, New York) made her debut in 2010 with The Possessed, a book about her favourite Russian writers, including Tolstoy, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky and Chekhov. In pursuit of literary truth, Batuman repeats Pushkin’s wanderings in the Caucasus, and travels to Tolstoy’s ancestral estate to investigate whether the great man might in fact have been murdered. The search leads to digressions on a wide range of subjects, from literary mores and translations to questions of love, songs by The Smiths, and the making of the film King Kong. By following the footsteps of her literary heroes, Batuman succeeds in bringing them to life and giving them a place in today’s world. Batuman,born in New York of Turkish parents, received a doctorate in comparative literature from Stanford University. She frequently writes for the New Yorker. Her essays are striking because of their fresh, comical, yet solid style. Her first book appeared in Dutch translation in 2010. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award (2007) and a Whiting Writers’ Award (2010).
Past events
Wintercafe 2: VPRO De Avonden
In VPRO’s De Avonden poets, musicians and writers give the audience a glimpse of their own Utopia. Gustaaf Peek, Hisham Matar and Elif Batuman will talk about writer's luck. Hosts: Jeroen van Kan and Lotje IJzermans. Music: Amarins & Le Gatte Negre Collective. In Dutch and English.
The comfort of the bedside table
Elif Batuman (US/Turkey) reveals in The Possessedhow to bring literature as close to your life as possible. Manon Uphofftells us in Hoe te lezen (How to read) what the writer tries to get across. Marja Pruis questions them about the comfort literature can offer. In English.
The Beauty of the Life of the Other
Jan Donkers talks to Elif Batuman (US/Turkey) and K. Schippers about the beauty of reality and the way in which other people's lives can serve as the driving wheel of one 's own imagination. In English.
