Shahzoda Samarqandi, a Tajik novelist, poet, and journalist from Uzbekistan, has drawn
praise from Persian and Russian critics and readers for her intense visions of ecocide, imperial collapse,
and fundamentalism in modern Eurasia. Samarqandi will read from the brand new English translation
of her novel Mothersland (Slavica, 2024), an intergenerational epic about love and memory in
Uzbekistan’s toxic cotton fields. A conversation with Sam Hodgkin (Comparative Literature) and Claire Roosien (Slavic) will follow.
This event is co-sponsored by the Central Asia Initiative, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Slavic Department, Center for Middle East Studies, Program in Iranian Studies, and Department of Comparative Literature.