Mikhail Elizarov

Genres

Contemporary Fiction

Biography

Mikhail Elizarov was born in 1973 in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. He graduated from Kharkov State University, with a degree in philology. Simultaneously with his studies, he studied vocal at Higher Musical School. Until 1999 he was a student at the Kharkov Arts Academy, studying film directing. He continued his film studies in Berlin, Germany.


His first book, Fingernails (a novella and collection of short stories) appeared in 2001, published by Ad Marginem Press in Moscow. The book was shortlisted for the Andrei Bely prize. He followed that with his novel Pasternak and short story collection Red Film. The books were nominated for the ‘National Bestseller’ award. His novel The Librarian received the 2008 ‘Russian Booker Prize’.


Elizarov has been the recipient of a number of scholarships from European cultural foundations, including Literarische Kolloquium Berlin, Baltic Zentrum (Sweden), and Stipendium der Stadt Schwaz (Austria). His books have been translated into German, French, Italian, Danish, Chinese, Serbian, Romanian, Polish and Hungarian. Since 2007 the writer has been living in Moscow where he continues to write.

Prizes and awards

2008Russian Booker Prize (The Librarian / Библиотекарь)
2007Longlisted for the Russian Booker Prize (The Librarian / Библиотекарь) 
2007Longlisted for the National Bestseller Award (The Librarian / Библиотекарь) 
2007Longlisted for the Big Book Award (The Librarian / Библиотекарь) 
2001

Shortlisted for the Andrei Bely Prize (Fingernails / Ногти)

Books