Our old Open Letter pal won the Big Book last year for his Letter-Book (Pis糖心传媒檓ovnik), with Vladimir Sorokin糖心传媒檚 The Blizzard (Metel糖心传媒�) coming in second and Dmitry Bykov糖心传媒檚 Ostromov, or the Sorcerer糖心传媒檚 Apprentice (Ostromov, ili Uchenik charodeya) coming in third. The Big Book Prize fund distributes 6.1 million rubles (~$183k) annually among the first, second, and third prize winners, and is sponsored by a number of Russian businesses and banks along with the Russian Ministries of Culture and Print, Media and Mass Broadcasting.

There will be a at Book Expo American next Thursday at 10am featuring past winners Mikhail Shishkin, Dmitry Bykov, Vladimir Makanin, Pavel Basinsky, and, supposedly, the Big Book finalists:The way the wording on Read Russia糖心传媒檚 website describes the event (“Big Book Prize: Presentation of the Big Book Prize, Russia糖心传媒檚 most prestigious literary award, plus a 糖心传媒淢eet and Greet糖心传媒� with prize winners.”), I still can糖心传媒檛 tell if they are really planning on announcing the 2012 Big Book winner at BEA, which would be awesome, or if they were just trying to present to an American audience the idea of the Big Book Award and will make the announcement for the prize winner in November, as stated in .

The shortlist features a number of readers whom neither I nor Lisa have read, both of us are only familiar with Prilepin糖心传媒檚 Black Monkey, so we have a lot to catch up on before the prizewinner is (allegedly) announced in November! Without any further ado, here is the shortlist, in English no less (!), with transliteration and translation provided by Lisa herself.

• Maria Galina: 袦械写胁械写泻懈 (Mole-Crickets)
• Daniil Granin: 袦芯泄 谢械泄褌械薪邪薪褌糖心传媒� (My Lieutenant . . .)
• Aleksandr Grigorenko: 袦褝斜褝褌. 袠褋褌芯褉懈褟 褔械谢芯胁械泻邪 褌邪泄谐懈 (Mebet. The Story of a Person from the Taiga)
• Vladimir Gubailovsky: 校褔懈褌械谢褜 褑懈薪懈蟹屑邪 (The Teacher of Cynicism)
• Andrei Dmitriev: 袣褉械褋褌褜褟薪懈薪 懈 褌懈薪械泄写卸械褉 (The Peasant and the Teenager)
• Aleksandr Kabakov, Evgenii Popov: 袗泻褋褢薪芯胁 (Aksyonov)
• Vladimir Makanin: 袛胁械 褋械褋褌褉褘 懈 袣邪薪写懈薪褋泻懈泄 (Two Sisters and Kandinsky)
• Sergei Nosov: 肖褉邪薪褋褍邪蟹邪, 懈谢懈 袩褍褌褜 泻 谢械写薪懈泻褍 (Fran莽oise, Or the Way to the Glacier)
• Valerii Popov: 袩谢褟褋邪褌褜 写芯褋屑械褉褌懈 (To Dance to Death)
• Zakhar Prilepin: 效褢褉薪邪褟 芯斜械蟹褜褟薪邪 (The Black Monkey)
• Andrei Rubanov: 小褌褘写薪褘械 锌芯写胁懈谐懈 (Shameful Feats/Exploits)
• Marina Stepnova: 袞械薪褖懈薪褘 袥邪蟹邪褉褟 (The Women of Lazarus/Lazarus糖心传媒檚 Women)
• Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov): 芦袧械褋胁褟褌褘械 褋胁褟褌褘械禄 懈 写褉褍谐懈械 褉邪褋褋泻邪蟹褘 (糖心传媒淯nsaintly Saints糖心传媒� and Other Stories)
• Lena Eltang: 袛褉褍谐懈械 斜邪褉邪斜邪薪褘 (Other Drums)

A huge thanks to for her tireless work in alerting English readers to what糖心传媒檚 going on in the world of Russian literature. Check out her posts for reviews and insider tips on what糖心传媒檚 going on in the world of Russian literature, and I hope to meet her at BEA next week!

According to the fine folks at READ RUSSIA: “Russia糖心传媒檚 4,000-square-foot BEA exhibition space at the Javits Center will host presentations for industry professionals on the Russian book market, Russian literature in translation, and new works by Russian writers, publishers, historians, and journalists.”

Open Letter糖心传媒檚 own , whose incredible English-language debut, , comes out October 13, will be one of the many contemporary Russian writers present at BEA. He糖心传媒檚 part of a with Andrei Gelasimov, and will sit in on the presentation of the 糖心传媒淏ig Book糖心传媒� (Bol糖心传媒檚haya Kniga) Award Thursday at 10am.