Alexander Karasyov

Alexander Karasyov (Russian — Александр Владимирович Карасёв, transl. Alexandr Vladimirovich Karasev) is a Russian writer living in St. Petersburg, Russia.

It seems that our younger generation of writers, already labelled "New Realists", understand this. A generation raised in a free Russia, they combine both Gogol's trends. With a command since childhood of foreign languages, to which their forefathers had no access, enjoying freedom of speech, the absence of censorship, the opportunity to travel all over the world – for example, to spend time in Gogol's beloved Rome, where he wrote Dead Souls and to read books that used to be banned, they are creating a new type of literature. They clearly see everything wrong with new society and are far from conformist, but nevertheless are not "rebels" in the 20th-century sense (eg, anarchists, hippies, France's 1968 "revolutionaries"). They are writers who assume there is a place for preaching in journalism, social and political writing and the media, but that "direct action" is the responsibility of civil society. Their names are not yet well known to "general readers", but – believe me – the future belongs to them. That's why I'll mention a few I know personally: Zakhar Prilepin, Alexander Karasyov, Dmitriy Faleyev, Vladimir Lorchenkov, Tatyana Zamirovskaya, Peter Orekhovskiy, Anton Nechayev, Ivan Klinovoy, Alexander Silayev, Yevgeni Bevers, Andrey Mukhin, Marta Ketro, Alexander Snegiryov and Viktoria Lebedeva. I recommend you make a note of these names, just in case. After all, good writers are always in short supply.

Since 2003 he has been published in literary journals. He was awarded the Bunin Prize (2008) and the Second O. Henry Prize "Dary Volhvov" (The Gift of the Magi) (New York, 2010). He is the author of the books "The Chechen Stories" (Chechenskye Rasskazy) and "Traitor" (Predatel').

Alexander Karasyov was born in Krasnodar, Russia, in 1971. He received degrees in history and law from the Kuban State University and worked as a mechanic, engineer, teacher, and legal advisor. He served in the army, taking part in the fights in Chechnya.

Alexander Karasyov, like Arkady Babchenko and Zakhar Prilepin, is considered a representative of the Russian "New Realism" movement of the 21st century, continuing the tradition of the "lieutenant prose" of the 1960s and 1970s and military prose of the 1990s.