Young Authors Have Their Own 'Facultet'

In December 2007, with the support of the Faculty of Journalism of Lomonosov Moscow State University and the company 'Ekonaut', the book 'Facultet. New Literature of the New Generation' was released. The book is a collection of works by the winners of a literary contest for young talented writers. The presentation of the collection will take place on December 21, 2007, at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. If you judge by the shelves of bookstores, you might get the impression that young poets and prose writers in Russia have disappeared as a class. However, tens of thousands of works by young authors are presented on any of the literary portals on the Internet. Today there are more and more poetic and prose communities consisting of young writers and poets. They organize public readings, hold literary tournaments, come up with new directions and styles, but... all this literary activity takes place far from traditional paper 'carriers', which means that young authors often cannot reach their readers. The collection 'Facultet. New Literature of the New Generation' is intended to bridge this 'communication gap' and is the result of a project realized by several students of the Faculty of Journalism of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The open literary contest 'Facultet' was held from February to May 2007. The distinctive feature of the contest was its scale and diversity: works of all possible genres were accepted, and the themes of the contest works were not limited. The only restriction was age: any author under the age of 30 could participate in the contest. The jury of the contest included the dean of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University Professor Yasen Zasursky, Professor of Moscow State University Vladimir Novikov, Professor of Moscow State University Igor Volgin, writer Alexander Kabakov, writer and TV presenter Dmitry Bykov, poet Andrey Rodionov, poet Ulyana Zavorotinskaya, associate professor of Moscow State University Anastasia Grusha, senior research fellow of the Institute of World Literature Professor Alexander Ushakov, and literary critic and journalist Natalia Ivanova. Over 1000 authors from different countries (Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Israel) and cities (Moscow, Samara, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Ashgabat, Vladivostok, Voronezh, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar, Tbilisi, Minsk, Yerevan, Tashkent, Tel Aviv) took part in the contest. Today, the main task of the project participants is to announce the release of the new collection, so that readers get to know about it and it does not turn into 'Facultet of unnecessary things'. In the future, it is planned that the 'Facultet. New Literature of the New Generation' project will grow into a truly competitive publishing house. Its distinctive feature will be a focus on working with young and promising authors. The event starts at 19:00, admission is free. You can find additional information and directions on the project's official website www.facultet-book.ru→