Elena Kostyuchenko will present her new book, I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country. Her book is a collection of reportage and personal essays from the past 15 years. To be a journalist is to tell the truth. I Love Russia is Kostyuchenko's unrelenting attempt to document her country as experienced by those whom it systematically and brutally erases: village girls recruited into sex work, queer people in the outer provinces, patients and doctors at a Ukrainian maternity ward, and reporters like herself.

Kostyuchenko is a Russian independent journalist. She was a special correspondent for Novaya Gazeta for 17 years until the newspaper shut down in March 2022 due to pressure from the Russian government. She reports on armed conflicts, crime, human rights, and social issues and was among the first journalists to document the presence of Russian troops in Eastern Ukraine, covering the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine since its second day. Currently, she collaborates with the exiled independent Russian media network Meduza. Kostyuchenko has received multiple journalism awards, including the European Press Prize, the Gerd Bucerius Prize Free Press of Eastern Europe, and the Paul Klebnikov Prize.

Kostyuchenko will be joined in conversation by Professor Elizabeth King, CREES Director.

A book signing will follow the lecture, with Kostyuchenko's book available for purchase from Literati.

Co-sponsors: Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Institute for Research on Women and Gender

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact crees@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.