Russian writer in exile Anna Starobinets and her translator Katherine E. Young will read and discuss the memoir Look at Him. A finalist for the 2018 National Bestseller Prize, Look at Him ignited a firestorm in Russia, prompting both high praise and severe condemnation for the author’s willingness to discuss long-taboo issues of women’s agency over their own bodies. Beautiful, darkly humorous, and deeply moving, Look at Him explores moral, ethical, and quintessentially human issues that resonate for families in the world beyond Russia, as well.
Journalist, scriptwriter, and novelist Anna Starobinets has been called “Russia’s Queen of Horror.” She has published novels, short stories, and children's books, and describes herself as writing "horror and supernatural fiction for adults, and also fairy and detective stories for children." Poet and translator Katherine E. Young has translated prose from Russia and Azerbaijan and poetry from Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. A 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellow, Young served as the inaugural poet laureate for Arlington, Virginia.