Dubravka in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

In advance of Dubravka’s reading on Friday at Novella Bookstore, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran this interview.

Q: Are Americans reading enough foreign literature in translation?

A: I inspired Open Letter Books (the American publisher of Nobody’s Home) to print a new translation of an old Russian novel, The Golden Calf, by Ilja Ilf and Evgenij Petrov. It’s wonderful when you can push them to publish a book from somebody else. I don’t know the larger audience, but I have mingled in university circles. I must say America academia is absolutely wonderful, with wonderful students who show an enormous interest in foreign cultures and, of course, literature and the language. They’re absolutely fantastic. So my experience is with the students and people from the academic world. And it’s absolutely superior.

Q: What is your next novel to be published in the United States?

A: Baba Yaga Laid an Egg. A sort of big literary game and a play on a very old motif. Baba Yaga is an old witch, basically from Russian fairytale, also present in other Slavic folk traditions.

Baba Yaga is part of the Canongate/Grove “Myths” Series and I believe it’s scheduled to come out in May.