Alexander Ilichevsky
Genres
Contemporary Fiction, Poetry
Biography
Alexander Ilichevsky was born in Sumgait, Azerbaijan in 1970 and graduated in theoretical physics from a technological institute affiliated to Moscow University. He worked in scientific research in Israel and California from 1991 to 1998, whereupon he returned to live in Moscow with his family. He is the author of many literary works in various genres, both poetry and prose, all of which have been published in Russia’s most prestigious literary journals, such as Novy mir (New World), Oktiabr (October) – and all to great literary acclaim.
His novel Matisse, dedicated to all those born in 1970, like the author himself, won him the Russian Booker Prize in 2007 – one of a record seventy-eight works submitted for consideration for the prize that year. This outstanding achievement is not only testament to Ilichevsky’s great talent as a writer, but also to the fact that Russian literature is alive and flourishing today, perhaps as never before. His recent novel The Persian was awarded the Silver Big Book Prize in 2010.
He is currently working as a web-editor in Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Corporation. He lives with his wife and son in Moscow. ‘In my view,' Ilichevsky has said, ‘all prose should follow the laws of poetry. That's not to say that everything needs to be forced into rhythmic periods or blank verse. No, the main thing is that the entire story should contain the same depth and inscrutability as a poem'.
Prizes and awards
| 2010 | The Silver Big Book Prize (The Persian / Перс) |
| 2010 | Shortlisted for the Yasnaya Poliana Prize (The Persian / Перс) |
| 2008 | Shortlisted for the Big Book Prize (The Limestone’s Song / Пение известняка) |
| 2007 | Russian Booker Prize (Matisse / Матисс) |
| 2007 | Shortlisted for the Big Book Prize (Matisse / Матисс) |
| 2006 | Shortlisted for Bunin Award (Klein’s Bottle / Бутылка Клейна) |
| 2006 | Shortlisted for the Big Book Prize (Ay-Petri / Ай-Петри) |
| 2006 | Winner of the Voloshin International Literary Contest (short story Little White House / Белый домик) |
| 2005 | Shortlisted for Mivzak Prose Prize, Israel |
| 2005 | Dvarim Poetry Prize, Israel (Stone / Камень) |
| 2005 | Novy Mir Award (Sparrow / Воробей) |
| 2005 | Kazakov Award for The Best Short Story (Sparrow / Воробей) |
Books
- Mathematics / Математика, 2010
- The Swimmer / Пловец, 2010
- Solar Oil / Соляра, 2010
- The Horizon on a Wheel / Небозем на колесе, 2010
- The Persian, 2010
- Rain for Danae / Дождь для Данаи, 2010
- The Limestone’s Song / Пение известняка, 2008
- The Jawbone of an Ass, 2008
- Ay-Petri / Ай-Петри, 2007
- Matisse, 2007
- Klein’s Bottle, 2005
- Volga Honey and Glass, 2004
- The Incident / Случай, Kommentarii, 1996