The best Belarusian prose of the year is annually awarded the prestigious Jerzy Giedroyc Prize. In 2021, Eva Viežnaviec received it for the novel “What are you looking for, Wolf?” – as the first woman. Viežnaviec is now talking about the book, a dialogue between the narrator Ryna and the Belarusian grandmother, in the Literaturhaus. The “homage to Belarusian women, their strength and emancipated sophistication in life,” like the default writes, is moderated by Volker Weichsel and accompanied by a reading by Lisa Wagner.
Eva Viežnaviec, the name is a pseudonym, has worked as a journalist since the mid-1990s with a focus on the interaction between Europe and Belarus – a complex that has become more relevant since Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s term in office. It is correspondingly interesting that Viežnaviec’s novel also provides a glimpse into “a forgotten Belarus,” as fellow Belarusian author Alexandrovna Alexiewitsch writes.
“What are you looking for, Wolf?”, reading with Eva Viežnaviec, Wednesday, October 11th, 6:30 p.m., Literaturhaus Munich, www.literaturhaus-muenchen.de