Alexander Genis (born February 11, 1953) is a Russian–American writer, broadcaster, and
cultural critic
A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the social positions of ...
. He has written more than a dozen books that are non-fiction bestsellers in Russia.
Genis, an American citizen, resides in the New York City area. He is the father of
Daniel Genis, writer and journalist.
Life and career
After graduating from the
Latvian State University
University of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Universitāte, shortened ''LU'') is a state-run university located in Riga, Latvia established in 1919.
The ''QS World University Rankings'' places the university between 801st and 1000th globally, sevent ...
in
Riga, then in the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, Genis immigrated to the USA in 1977 at the age of 24. His career started in New York City where he met and worked with Nobel Prize in Literature winner
Joseph Brodsky, writer
Sergei Dovlatov
Sergei Donatovich Dovlatov (russian: link=no, Сергей Донатович Довлатов; 1941 1990) was a Soviet journalist and writer. Internationally, he is one of the most popular Russian writers of the late 20th century.
Biography
...
, painter and writer-conceptualist
Vagrich Bakhchanyan.
Genis is an anchorman of the weekly radio-show ''American Hour with Alexander Genis'' broadcast in Russian by
Radio Liberty
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
since the 1990s. Genis is a columnist and a contributing writer for the main liberal Russian newspaper ''
Novaya Gazeta'', and used to be the host of the TV show ''Alexander Genis. Letters from America'', shown on Russian TV channel "Culture".
Bibliography
*''Red bread'' (collection of essays).
*''USA from A to Y'' (cultural travelogue from the outside in).
*''Knit'' (autobiographical essays).
*''Darkness and Stillness'' (meditations).
*''6 Fingers'' (intellectual autobiography).
*''Candy Wrappers''( analysis of classical Russian paintings).
*''Ginger-man'' (culinary essays).
*''The Tower of Babel'' (cultural criticism).
*''Dovlatov and his Environs'' (
non-fiction novel
The non-fiction novel is a literary genre which, broadly speaking, depicts real historical figures and actual events woven together with fictitious conversations and uses the storytelling techniques of fiction. The non-fiction novel is an otherw ...
, as of 2016 it had 6 publications in Russian
Без Довлатова, А. Генис, 02.09.2016
/ref>).
*''Ivan Petrovich is dead'' (essays on modern Russian literature).
*''Ticket to China'' (cultural criticism).
*''A Particular Case'' (essays on writers).
*''Portrait of the Poet: 1978–1996 : Joseph Brodsky'' (Essay in English and Russian).
External links
Red Bread on Amazon
Alexander Genis in Novaya Gazeta
Alexander Genis in IMDB
Alexander Genis in Zhurnal'nyj Zal
Moscow TV Interview with Alexander Genis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Genis, Alexander
1953 births
Living people
Russian expatriates in the United States
American male journalists
Writers from New York (state)
Cultural critics
University of Latvia alumni