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Irina Zhorov
September 21, 2023 | 6:00 pm
Photo by Sam Brown
This event is co-sponsored by The Schaefer Center Presents series and Appalachian Journal
Novelist Irina Zhorov was born in Uzbekistan, in the Soviet Union, and moved to Philadelphia on the eve of its dissolution. After failing to make use of a geology degree, she received an MFA from the University of Wyoming. Zhorov has worked as a journalist for more than a decade, reporting primarily on environmental issues. Her first novel, Lost Believers, was published by Scribner in 2023.
ABOUT Lost Believers
Set in Soviet Russia in the 1970s, Lost Believers explores a chance encounter between two young women that forever alters the course of their lives. Galina is an ambitious young geologist with an influential father, leading a state scouting mission for iron deposits in a remote stretch of Siberian wilderness. Agafia is the youngest daughter of a family of Old Believers, a persecuted sect of Christians, who have been living in total isolation for decades. Galina and her pilot, Snow Crane, are the first people outside of her family Agafia has ever met. The growing friendship between the two women begins to challenge the beliefs and futures they had previously thought unshakable. As Agafia learns more about the world beyond her homestead and suffers several grievous losses, Galina begins to question her own role in the construction of a mine that threatens to displace her new friend’s family. Against the backdrop of the icy taiga and Soviet-era Moscow, this powerful novel explores faith and politics, family and friendship, and the relentless march of “progress” as it threatens the natural world.
Admission is FREE and open to the public
DATE
Thursday, September 21
SCHEDULE
Craft Talk: 2-3:15pm
Reading: 6pm
Book sales and signing will follow.
LOCATION
Plemmons Student Union 201B, Table Rock Room
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Susan Weinberg at weinbergsc@appstate.edu
FREE CAMPUS PARKING for community members and students will be allowed for the 6pm readings in the vicinity of the Plemmons Student Union. We recommend either the East Howard Lot (behind the Student Union) or the College Street Deck beginning at 5pm (from King Street, turn down College Street at the First Baptist Church). To reach the Student Union, cross College Street and follow the walkway between the chiller plant and the University Bookstore, passing the Post Office and entering the Student Union on the second floor. For further parking information or a map, please see www.parking.appstate.edu
ABOUT THE VISITING WRITERS SERIES
The Visiting Writers Series is named in honor of the late Hughlene Bostian Frank (class of 1968), a 2013 Appalachian Alumni Association Outstanding Service Award recipient, past member of Appalachian’s Board of Trustees and ASU Foundation, long time member of the College of Arts and Sciences Advancement Board, and generous supporter of Appalachian State University.
THE HUGHLENE BOSTIAN FRANK VISITING WRITERS SERIES IS SUPPORTED BY
- Appalachian Journal
- Appalachian State University Foundation, Inc.
- Appalachian’s Office of Academic Affairs
- Belk Library
- College of Arts and Sciences
- Department of English
- The Schaefer Center Presents
- University Bookstore
BUSINESS SPONSORS
- The Gideon Ridge Inn
- Hellbender Bed and Beverage
COMMUNITY SPONSORS
- Thomas McLaughlin
- Alice Naylor
- Paul and Judy Tobin
