DeniSaven

A life-long story

My name is DeniSaven (ДениСавен). I love writing stories and tales. Here, I will share my works and personal stories with you.

My name is DeniSavin. I was born in Minsk. My parents were humanities professors, and I absorbed a love for history and literature from an early age.

Afterwards, I studied at the Belarusian State University, majoring in literary studies. But it took a long time before I could pursue my passion. There was military service and a period of self-discovery, a time of decline and financial difficulties.

The situation began to change in 1997 when I met the editor Mikhail Beloborodov. Together with literary critic Petr Samsonov, they founded their publishing house, “Preambula,” in 1998. For the new publishing house, I translated and prepared “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club” and later Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist.”

Later, I worked as a staff correspondent for the magazines “Zerkalo” and “Vzglyad.” In “Zerkalo,” I published my first story, “Mutually Sharp.”

In 2000, thanks to the literary critic Boris Kaverzny, my novel “On the Way Home” was published in a small edition that quickly sold out, and in 2005, this book made it to the top 5 best-selling books in Russia.

Recently, I moved to Berlin and am working on my next novel.

  • I have created works such as “The Life of the Lozgunovs,” “The Generation of the Abandoned,” “Fedka,” “The House of the Insane,” and several others.
  • In 2004, I was admitted to the Union of Journalists of Russia.
  • In 2005, my first collection of stories, “Traffic Light,” was published. In 2008, I received the Little Booker Prize.
  • In 2007, the work “The Big Lie” was shortlisted for the national literary prize “Big Book.”
  • In 2009, the book “And the Sun Rose” received the “Electronic Book” award in the “Prose of the Year” category.
  • In 2011, I won the Apollo Grigoriev Award for the essay collection “My City.

My stories and stories

A woman named Anna
Friendship and a sauna
The story of the day