Georgian literature in the UK

Arriving in a city he has not seen for more than two decades, where escaped zoo animals prowl the streets and the voices of those left behind beckon him along a path of cryptic clues, Saba embarks on a quest that will lead him into the heart of a lost homeland.
This is a rare, searching tale of home, memory and sacrifice - of one family's mission to rescue one another, and put the past to rest.

The event will be followed by a wine reception.

Panel:

Leo Vardiashvili was born and raised in the Sololaki district of Tbilisi, Georgia, until age twelve, when his family fled the civil war and economic strife of Georgia’s post-Soviet regime. They eventually found asylum in England, though they did not speak the language; English became Vardiashvili’s third language, after Georgian and Russian. It would be fifteen years before he became a naturalized citizen of the UK and could return to the Tbilisi of his childhood, during which time many of his loved ones passed away. Those initial reunions with old friends and relatives helped to inspire and inform HARD BY A GREAT FOREST. He continues to visit Georgia annually as an adult.

Mariam Vekua is a student in History, Politics and Economics at SSEES, with a passion for research and an interest in Eastern European politics. Apart from studies, she is the founder and president of the UCL Georgian Society, a student-led organisation with a mission to spread knowledge on Georgia in London. The Georgian Society fosters an inclusive community with a profound dedication to celebrating the Georgian culture at UCL.

Luka Grigolia is a Georgian publisher representing Sulakauri Publishing, and the founder of Polynomial Books. He publishes predominantly translated fiction and some non-fiction, in order to bring previously untranslated authors into the Georgian language.

Ramona Gonczol is Associate Professor in Romanian language studies at SSEES, UCL. She convenes the PROLang group and is an academic coordinator for the Language Short Courses programme at SSEES. She is the (co)author of Romanian and Essential Grammar (2nd edition, 2020) and Colloquial Romanian (4th edition,2014). Her research interests lie in the area of language acquisition, heritage speakers, cultural identities, language policy, multilingualism and ethnographic pedagogy. Ramona is a fellow of the HEA and the recipient for the Order for Cultural Merits in Promoting Romanian Culture and Language Abroad (2018).

Alena Rettová is Professor of African and Afrophone Philosophies at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, where she leads an ERC-funded project called "Philosophy and Genre: Creating a Textual Basis for African Philosophy" (2020-2025). Prior to joining Bayreuth, Alena taught Swahili literature and African philosophy at SOAS University of London (2006-2020). Alena's publications include Afrophone Philosophies: Reality and Challenge (2007) and Chanter l'existence: La poésie de Sando Marteau et ses horizons philosophiques (2013). Her forthcoming monograph is entitled The Nonhuman in African Philosophy (2025). A year ago, Alena enrolled in the Online Language Short Course of Georgian at SSEES UCL, a decision that was to deeply impact her work. She is currently investigating translations of African authors into Eastern European languages, with a focus on Czech and on Georgian, and developing a broader collaborative research project that interrogates the nexus between language and epistemic decolonization.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Masaryk room, Taviton Street, London, United Kingdom