2022

Honorable Mention: Katerina Clark
Title: Eurasia without Borders: The Dream of a Leftist Literary Commons, 1919-1943 (Belknap Press, Harvard University Press)

An epic work by a major scholar of Soviet culture history, Eurasia without Borders is a dazzling Baedeker, mapping the vast, contested history of Soviet writers’ and institutions’ efforts to engage with and influence the literatures of Central and East Asia. The book focuses on the literary subdivision of Communist International, which sought to establish a network of socialist and left-leaning writers, reaching out from Moscow to Baku, Beijing, London, the Middle East, and India. Starting with the cosmopolitanism of the avant-garde writers, such as Tret’iakov and Pil’niak, Katerina Clark moves to consider Comintern-endorsed Indian writers active in London. Further, she examines the reception and translation of Soviet socialist realist novels in China and Japan. An expansive and provocative political, cultural, and literary history, Eurasia without Borders is a major resource for scholars studying Leftist internationalism.

Winner: Yuliya Ilchuk