Writing in ... Russia

       At PEN America Glas New Russian Writing-editor Natasha Perova explains (or puzzles over ...) What is the Literary Scene in Russia Like Today ? (see also the Glas titles under review at the complete review -- as well as all the Russian ones, which includes several she mentions).
       An interesting overview -- including the observation that:

The authorities have finally realized how harmless intellectuals really are and leave them alone. Now they can say whatever they like and let off steam as much as they want, while the authorities couldn't care less about their dissent as long as they are published in small print runs, which is usually the case. Writers yearned for freedom but when it was finally granted to them, they found that nobody cared very much about their brave ideas. The state can still make trouble for writers (and there are quite a few instances of this) but clever writers simply take the opportunity to use trouble as publicity.

       And troubling to hear that:

In our times of market economy, pulp fiction has won over literary fiction in Russia, quite simply pushing it to the margins. If Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky tried offering their novels to commercial publishers today, they would have a hard time getting them published -- they'd probably be rejected on grounds that their novels are too long and dense, too verbose, slow-moving, and serious.

       (Still, note that Maidenhair and The Light and the Dark-author Mikhail Shishkin doens't rate a mention here .....)