WATCH: Polina Barskova on How We Cope with Experiences That Defy Comprehension

Greenlight is delighted to welcome Polina Barskova, a startlingly daring and original new voice from world literature, to our Fort Greene events stage in celebration of her debut fiction collection, Living Pictures. 

Praised in a starred review by Publishers Weekly as “haunting and magnificent,” Living Pictures refers to the parlor game of tableaux vivants, in which people dress up in costume to bring scenes from history back to life. It’s a game about survival, in a sense, and in these stories, Barskova explores the question of what it means to be a survivor, writing with caustic humor and wild invention about traumas past and present, historical and autobiographical, exploring how we cope with experiences that defy comprehension.

Barskova is joined by translator Catherine Ciepiela and acclaimed journalist/New Yorker staff writer Masha Gessen for a scintillating evening of reading and conversation.

***

Founded in October 2009 by Rebecca Fitting and Jessica Stockton Bagnulo, Greenlight Bookstore is an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York. Combining the best traditions of the neighborhood bookstore with carefully curated, community-minded events, Greenlight has earned a reputation as a literary destination. Greenlight has continued to serve its community during the COVID-19 pandemic with a diverse array of virtual events, and has been inspired by the movements for racial justice across the country to engage in the work of becoming a more anti-racist company. Learn more at greenlightbookstore.com or check them out @greenlightbklyn.