Pen name Gulla Khirachev Books The Mountain and the Wall Role Author | Name Alisa Ganieva Occupation writer, essayist | |
Education Maxim Gorky Literature Institute | ||
Alisa ganieva talks about caucasus
Alisa Arkadyevna Ganieva (or Ganiyeva; Russian: Алиса Аркадьевна Ганиева, born 1985) is a Russian author, writing novels, short prose and essays. In 2009, she was awarded the Debut literary prize for her debut novel Salaam, Dalgat!, published using the pseudonym of Gulla Khirachev.
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Ganieva was born in Moscow in an Avar family but moved with her family to Dagestan, where she lived in Gunib and later attended school in Makhachkala. In 2002 she moved back to Moscow and graduated from the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute. She works as a literary critic for the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily.
She won the Debut literary prize, the under-25 competition for authors writing in Russian, in 2009 for Salaam, Dalgat!. The identity of the author, who published it pseudonymously, was only discovered at the award ceremony. The novel describes the everyday life of Dagestani youth in the cities and shows the decay of traditional life and their difficult relations with Islam, the traditional religion of Dagestanis. The characters use the "Dagestani Russian", a pidgin version of Russian, to communicate, the first instance when this was presented in a literary work.
In 2012, Ganieva participated in the International Writing Program's Fall Residency at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA, and published her second novel, Holiday Mountain, also set in Dagestan. In 2014, it was translated to German. In 2015 the Italian and the English translations came out. The most recent one published by the Deep Vellum Publishing House (USA) is called "The Mountain And The Wall" (Russian: Праздничная гора). Ganieva spoke about the book to the audience of the London bureau of the Voice Of Russia radio In 2016, Spanish and Turkish translations followed.
In April 2015 her new novel "The Bride And The Bridegroom" was released in Russia and listed for the major literary awards. In particular, it made to the short list of the Russian Booker Prize, but did not receive the prize.
She also published short stories and fairy tales. She has received a number of literary awards for her fiction.
In June 2015 Ganieva was listed by The Guardian as one of the most talented and influential young people living in Moscow. She is number 9 on the list.
