Mikhail Pavlovich Shishkin (, born 18 January 1961) is a Russian-Swiss writer and the only author to have won the Russian Booker Prize (2000), the Russian National Bestseller (2005), and the Big Book Prize (2010). His books have been translated into 30 languages.Shishkin´s Literary Agency He also writes in German.
Biography Mikhail Shishkin was born in Moscow on 18 January 1961 to Irina Georgievna Shishkina, a Russian literature teacher, and Pavel Mikhailovich Shishkin, an engineer constructor. In 1977 Shishkin graduated from high school #59 in Arbat district in the centre of Moscow.
After graduation from Moscow State Pedagogical Institute, where Shishkin studied German and English, he worked as a road worker, street sweeper, journalist, school teacher, and translator.
In 1995, Shishkin moved to Switzerland for family reasons. He worked in Zürich within the Immigration Department and specifically with refugees as a Russian and German translator.Big Book Prize web-siteInterview with Mikhail Shishkin, The Morning News December 17, 2012 He has Swiss citizenship.Ulrich M. Schmid: Das Ich und seine Geschichten. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 12. März 2011.
Shishkin was invited as a guest professor to Washington and Lee University in Lexington (VA) (fall semester 2007 and 2009). Since 2011 Shishkin has lived with his family in a small village near Basel.
Shishkin was a guest of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program in Berlin from 2012 to 2013. He is a frequent guest lecturer at universities and cultural foundations across Europe and the United States and a frequent speaker on television and radio in many countries.BBC Radio 4 Talk with Shishkin March 24, 2013Sternstunde Philosophie - Poet gegen Zar - Der Schriftsteller Michail Schischkin/Poet against Tsar (in German)Shishkin´s Talk at the Columbia University June 26, 2013
Shishkin has published articles in The New York Times,"Mikhail Shishkin: How Russians lost the War" The New York Times 9.05.2015 The Wall Street Journal,Mikhail Shishkin on Olimpics in Sochi, The Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2014 The Guardian, Le Monde,Mikhail Chichkine "Triste empire poutinien" Le Monde, March 3, 2012] The Independent,"Mikhail Shishkin: A revolution for Russia's words" , The Independent 22.03.2013 and other media outlets.
In 2024, Mikhail Shishkin co-founded the Dar Literary Prize together with Swiss Slavists.
Literary career
His first novel One Night Befalls Us All (Omnes una manet nox) / Всех ожидает одна ночь also appeared the same year in Znamya. Later this novel was published under the title Larionov's Reminiscences / Записки Ларионова. His first publications attracted the attention of literary critics and Shishkin received the Prize for the Best Debut of the Year.Official website of the literary magazine Znamya Fred Kaplan called Mikhail Shishkin in Boston Globe "one of Moscow´s most wellregarded young novelists"."Reading the Future of Russian Literature" by F.Kaplan, The Boston Sunday Globe June 25, 1995
In 1999, Znamya published Shishkin's breakthrough novel The Taking of Izmail. In 2000 the novel won Russian Booker Prize for the best Russian novel of the year. Nezavisimaya gazeta wrote: "A beautiful, powerful and fascinating book which will become a milestone not only in the history of Russian literature but in the development of Russian self-awareness."″Taking Izmail sub specia aeternitatis" by Bakhyt Kenzheyev, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" January 17, 2000.
His experience of moving to a new country inspired Shishkin to write Russian Switzerland / Русская Швейцария, a nonfiction literary-historical guide. In 1999 it was published by PANO-Verlag in Zürich (in Russian). This book was translated into German and French and received the award of Canton of Zürich (Werkbeitrag des Kantons Zürich 2000).
In 2002, Limmat Verlag in Zürich released Shishkin's book written in German Montreux-Missolunghi-Astapowo: Tracing Byron and Tolstoy, a literary walk from Lake Geneva to the Bern AlpsMichail Schischkin Montreux-Missolunghi-Astapowo, Auf den Spuren von Byron und Tolstoj Limmat Verlag, Zürich, 2002 which received the literary award of Zürich (Werkjahr der Stadt Zürich 2002).
In 2005, Shishkin published the novel Maidenhair, receiving the National Bestseller award 2005 and Big Book Award 2006. Maya Kucherskaya, a critic, described Shishkin's novel in the following manner: "Maidenhair is a great novel about a word and a language that becomes soft and obedient in the hands of a Master. It can create any other reality which will be more stunning and credible that the real world. The gap between a word and a fact, between reality and its translation to the human language is a real hotbed of internal tension in the novel".Mikhail Shishkin´s Anabasis by Maya Kucherskaya, polit.ru Moscow News stated, "The writer tries to connect the achievements of Western literature of the XX century and its love for verbal technique with the humanistic nature of Russian literature. His new novel speaks about the most important subject: how to defeat death with love."By the word shall we be resurrected by Dmitry Kharitonov, Moscow News, April 22, 2005
The novel in the English translation published by Open Letter in 2012 was highly praised by critics. Daniel Kalder in The Dallas Morning News stated: "In short, Maidenhair is the best post-Soviet Russian novel I have read. Simply put, it is true literature, a phenomenon we encounter too rarely in any language."Mikhail Shishkin´s Maidenhair Review by Daniel Kalder, November 26. 2012 Boris Dralyuk wrote in The Times Literary Supplement that "Shishkin's prodigious erudition, lapidary phrasing and penchant for generic play are conspicuous components of his art...These characteristics do indeed ally him with Nabokov, as does his faith in the power of the written word: "The story is the hand, and you're the mitt. Stories change you, like mitts. You have to understand that stories are living beings"."TLS,Sentimental Education by Boris Dralyuk, March 29. 2013
In 2010, the novel Pismovnik (Letter-Book) was published by AST in Moscow. It won him the main Russian literary Prize "Bolshaya kniga" - the author received the main award of the Big Book Prize (2011) and won the reader choice vote.
The English translation of Pismovnik was published under the title The Light and the Dark by Quercus in 2013. The Wall Street Journal praised the author: "Mr. Shishkin has created a bewitching potion of reality and fantasy, of history and fable, and of lonely need and joyful consolation."Wall Street Journal, Book Review: 'The Light and the Dark' by Sam Sacks, January 10, 2014 Monocle stated: "His latest novel, The Light and the Dark, in its brilliant translation, is striking proof that great Russian literature didn't die with Dostoevsky. The prose is lapidary, the evocation of history and the present razor-sharp. A wonderful book: it is filled with wonder."Monocle Magazine, April 2013, Issue 62, volume 7, p.182-183. Book Review: 'The Light and the Dark' by Robert Bound, January 10, 2014 The Sunday Times called Shishkin "a writer with a compelling sense of the skull beneath the skin."The Sunday Times "On a winning streak" by Phil Baker, April 14, 2013 The New York Times Book Review described Shishkin as "a proud sentimentalist. (The gold medal for synchronized cynicism and sentimentalism will always go to Russia.)"The New York Times Book Review "Dear Sasha, Dear Volodya" by Boris Fishman, January 10, 2014 The Guardian wrote: "Both novels attempt to represent multifaceted reality, and there is sometimes an unbearable intensity as the metaphors sprout and writhe. The breathlessness of Maidenhair becomes, in The Light and the Dark, a more measured brilliance; the urgency of Shishkin's mission is undimmed. "Unless life is transformed into words, there will be nothing." ...Shishkin's writing is both philosophically ambitious and sensually specific."The Guardian "The Light and the Dark by Mikhail Shishkin" by Phoebe Taplin, March 13, 2013
In 2015, Deep Vellum Publishing released Calligraphy Lesson: The Collected Stories. Michael Orthofer in Complete Review called the book "an ideal introduction to Shishkin and his work". According to critic Jacob Kiernan (New Orleans Review),"the collection consists of artfully constructed, empathetic tales of people living in the midst cyclonic time."New Orleans Review Calligraphy Lesson: The Collected Stories, Book Review by Jacob Kiernan Caroline North wrote in Dallas Observer: "Though the stories in CALLIGRAPHY LESSON are steeped in Russian history and have a distinctly Russian tone, many of the philosophical quandaries they engage extend beyond language and borders ― they are universal problems, and this translation boldly and successfully takes them on."Dallas Observer,Is all about Language by Caroline North, May 22. 2015
Translations of the works of Mikhail Shishkin have received numerous international awards, including the 2007 Grinzane Cavour Prize (Italy)Mikhail Shishkin Vince il Grinzane Cavour - Mosca 21.11.2007 for Capelvenere (Italian translation of Maidenhair), the French literary prize for the best foreign book of the year 2005 - Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Essay) in ParisMikhaïl Chichkine Dans les pas de Byron et Tolstoi. Du lac Léman à l'Oberland bernois Noir sur Blanc, Lausanne, 2015 and The International Berlin Prize (Haus der Kulturen der Welt) International Literature Award for the best foreign novel of the year 2011 for Venushaar (German translation of Maidenhair).
Asked in an interview about all his prizes, Shishkin replied: "No award has ever made a book better." Shishkin sees his critical accomplishment as "proof that I was right not to compromise."Interview with Mikhail Shishkin, The Morning News December 17, 2012
In 2019, Shishkin released a digital Book Dead Souls, living Noses. An Introduction into the Russian Culture History (in German), a collection of 16 essays and 400 comments with pictures, music and videos. NZZ praised this digital project as "a new level in the development of book culture"."Michail Schischkin legt eine superbe multimediale Einführung in die russische Kulturgeschichte vor", by U.Schmid NZZ, January 20.2019 Shishkin called this book in an interview "my very personal encyclopedia of the Russian Culture".Michail Schischkin: «Für mein Buch gibt es noch kein Regal» LZ, January 13, 2019
All Shishkins's novels have been adapted into theater dramas in Russia.
Literary style
His prose has been praised, e.g., "Shishkin's language is wonderfully lucid and concise. Without sounding archaic, it reaches over the heads of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky (whose relationship with the Russian language was often uneasy) to the tradition of Pushkin."Times Literary Supplement, 8.10.2010. By V. Sonkin He says, "Bunin taught me not to compromise, and to go on believing in myself. Chekhov passed on his sense of humanity – that there can't be any wholly negative characters in your text. And from Tolstoy I learned not to be afraid of being naïve.""Russia's best-kept literary secret", Phoebe Taplin, Russia Beyond the Headlines, Jan 9, 2012.
Shishkin compares the writing process with a blood transfusion: "I am sharing the most important essence of life with my reader. But we need to have the same blood type."Interview with Mikhail Shishkin, The Morning News December 17, 2012
Political views
Shishkin openly opposes the current Russian government and criticizes sharply Vladimir Putin's domestic and foreign policies, including the annexation of Crimea in 2014."Vladimir Putin's black hole" The Guardian September 18, 2015."Mikhail Shishkin: How Russians lost the War" The New York Times 9.05.2015