Maria Stepanova In Conversation

Join Blackwell’s Manchester for an evening with Maria Stepanova, reading from and discussing her novel The Disappearing Act in conversation with James Daviss.

The novel follows a writer living in exile as her home country wages war, leaving her cut off from her language and unable to write. Disoriented and adrift, she travels abroad for an event but becomes unexpectedly stranded in an unfamiliar city, disconnected from her past life. In this rupture, the possibility of reinvention briefly emerges, even as memories, culture and fragments of identity continue to pull her back.

Blurring the boundaries between reality and dream, The Disappearing Act unfolds through luminous, hypnotic prose, weaving together reflections on displacement, shame and the fragile desire to disappear. Encounters with art, memory and unexpected companionship shape a narrative that is both intimate and expansive in its exploration of selfhood under pressure.

Maria Stepanova is an acclaimed poet, essayist and journalist, widely regarded as one of the most significant contemporary Russian writers. Her work has received numerous international honours, and her book In Memory of Memory was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. A prominent critic of the Russian government, she now lives in exile..