Wound : A Novel

For fans of Maggie Nelson & Eileen Myles, the lyrical & deeply moving story of a young queer woman’s journey across Russia to inter her mother’s ashes & to understand her sexuality, femininity, & griefFrom one of Russia’s most exciting new voices, Wound follows a young lesbian poet on a journey from Moscow to her hometown in Siberia, where she has promised to bury her mother’s ashes. Woven throughout this fascinating travel narrative are harrowing & at times sublime memories of her childhood & her sexual & artistic awakening. As she carefully documents her grief & interrogates her past, the narrator of Oksana Vasyakina’s autobiographical novel meditates on queerness, death, & love & finds new words for understanding her relationship with her mother, her country, her sexuality, & her identity as an artist.A sensual, whip-smart account of the complicated dynamics of queer life in present-day Siberia & Moscow, Wound is also in conversation with feminist thinkers & artists, including Susan Sontag, Louise Bourgeois, & Monique Wittig, locating Vasyakina’s work in a rich & exciting international literary tradition.°°° OKSANA VASYAKINA is a Russian poet & curator. Her debut poetry collection, Women’s Prose, was short-listed for the Andrei Bely Prize in 2016, & the original Russian-language edition of Wound won the NOS Prize in 2021. She lives in Moscow, where she teaches courses on writing & feminist literature.ELINA ALTER is a writer & translator. Her work appears in The Los Angeles Review of Books, BOMB, The Paris Review, The New England Review, & elsewhere. She is the editor of Circumference, a journal of translation & international culture. Finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ FictionFor fans of Maggie Nelson and Eileen Myles, the lyrical and deeply moving story of a young queer woman's journey across Russia to inter her mother's ashes and to understand her sexuality, femininity, and griefFrom one of Russia's most exciting new voices, Wound follows a young lesbian poet on a journey from Moscow to her hometown in Siberia, where she has promised to bury her mother's ashes. Woven throughout this fascinating travel narrative are harrowing and at times sublime memories of her childhood and her sexual and artistic awakening. As she carefully documents her grief and interrogates her past, the narrator of Oksana Vasyakina's autobiographical novel meditates on queerness, death, and love and finds new words for understanding her relationship with her mother, her country, her sexuality, and her identity as an artist.A sensual, whip-smart account of the complicated dynamics of queer life in present-day Siberia and Moscow, Wound is also in conversation with feminist thinkers and artists, including Susan Sontag, Louise Bourgeois, and Monique Wittig, locating Vasyakina's work in a rich and exciting international literary tradition. For fans of Maggie Nelson and Eileen Myles, the lyrical and deeply moving story of a young queer woman's journey across Russia to inter her mother's ashes and to understand her sexuality, femininity, and grief. From one of Russia's most exciting new voices, Wound follows a young lesbian poet on a journey from Moscow to her hometown in Siberia, where she has promised to bury her mother's ashes. Woven throughout this fascinating travel narrative are harrowing and at times sublime memories of her childhood and her sexual and artistic awakening. As she carefully documents her grief and interrogates her past, the narrator of Oksana Vasyakina's autobiographical novel meditates on queerness, death, and love and finds new words for understanding her relationship with her mother, her country, her sexuality, and her identity as an artist. A sensual, whip-smart account of the complicated dynamics of queer life in present-day Siberia and Moscow, Wound is also in conversation with feminist thinkers and artists, including Susan Sontag, Louise Bourgeois, and Monique Wittig, locating Vasyakina's work in a rich and exciting international literary tradition.