On December 12, 2009 Boston College will be hosting the Fall 2009 Michael B. Kreps Memorial Readings. Polina Barskova and Margarita Meklina, two distinguished contemporary Russian authors, will read from and discuss her works. They will be introduced by the moderator of the Kreps Readings, Prof. Maxim D. Shrayer (Boston College).

Polina Barskova was born and raised in St. Petersburg and received her Ph.D. in Russian Literature from the University of California at Berkeley. A poet and a critic, Barskova is the author of six collections of Russian poetry, among which are: “Christmas” (1991), “Race of the Peevish” (1993), and “Brazilian Scenes” (2005). Barskova is the recipient of a number of literary prizes, including “Moscow-Transit” Biennale (2005). She teaches at Hampshire College and lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Margarita Meklina, a native of St. Petersburg, emigrated to the US in 1994. A bilingual fiction writer and essayist, Meklina is the author of the story collection “The Battle at Petersburg” (2003), for which she received Russia’s Andrey Bely Prize. Her other books include “Love Has Four Hands” (2008, with Lida Iusupova) and the epistolary novel “POP 3” (2008, with Arkady Dragomoshchenko). She lives in San Francisco.

The reading will take place on Saturday, December 12th, at 7:30 PM in Gasson Hall 305 (Fulton Debating Room, on the Boston College main campus (a BC campus map is found at http://www.bc.edu/about/maps/s-chestnuthill.html). 

The event is conducted in Russian and is free and open to the public. For more information, please call Boston College's Department of Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures at (617) 552-3910 or email shrayerm@bc.edu.

Presently in their eleventh year, the Kreps Readings feature Russian émigré literature and serve to bring together the Boston College community and the Boston-area Russian émigré community. The event is cosponsored by the Boston College Department of Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures and the Office of the Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.