Moderator – Grisha Prorokov

Anna Starobinets is the "queen of Russian-language horror", writing fantasy thrillers and dystopias for adult readers, mixing science fiction and mysticism. Her most popular book for adults is Fox Fords (2022), an adventure mystical thriller set in 1945 in a small town on the border with China: here the fates of a former prisoner, a half-woman, half-fox, a tiger-man, a Nazi baron and many others collide.

The novel Anna is currently working on is a fantasy young adult about teenagers. Among the characters are a teenage oppositionist and a boy from Donbass who wanted to go to the West, but his mother brought him to Russia (this is a true story).

"Almost all the teenagers in the book are werewolves. There is an escape to Georgia. And everyone is fleeing here from the regime, and the teenagers - because they are being pursued by a warring clan of werewolves. It is a fairy tale, but its background is a real situation, real political events and war. The principle is the same as in Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth": the action there takes place against the backdrop of the civil war in Spain, but evil is not only outside, but also in the underside of reality."

Anna will talk about the new book and why it turns out to be very adult, and will answer a variety of questions:

Isn't it a shame to have your novels on the shelf next to Stephen King's? Doesn't the "engaging novel" status diminish its significance?
How to write a novel? Are there any methods for organizing a complex text with many plot lines?
Why take fact-checking so seriously?
What is the greatest joy of writing while working on a book?
What helps you survive in difficult times - literature? escapism?
What books should be written now? Does writing make any sense today?
Can I have your autograph?