Reading Group
One of the major goals of the Slavic and East European Maternal Studies Network is to get people talking about maternal experience and sensitive aspects of parenthood – and to increase public awareness of what parenting and motherhood feels like in different cultures. To kick-start these conversations, we are hosting an online reading group/book club dedicated to exploring maternal topics. In keeping with our remit, we will primarily choose books translated from other languages, mostly but not exclusively from Slavic and East European languages.
The book club will be run jointly by Dr B.J. Epstein (University of East Anglia), Dr Egle Kackute (University of Vilnius) and Professor Muireann Maguire (University of Exeter). A link for participants will be posted below in autumn 2021. Everyone who enjoys reading about parenting experience is welcome to get involved – this book group is NOT just for academics or linguists. ALL books will be read in English translation.
To participate, please sign up for our first session on June 21st, 2022 at 12pm here.
See below for some fiction titles we recommend, with a link to the publisher in each case (not all publishers retail in the UK and Europe):
- Breathing into Marble by Laura Černiauskaitė, translated by Marija Marcinkute
- Look At Him by Anna Starobinets, translated by Katherine E. Young
- Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena, translated by Margita Gailitis
- Dog Park by Sofi Oksanen, translated by Owen Frederick Witesman