Author Angela Ajayi, and Maxim Matusevich, Ph.D., professor and director of the Russian
and East European Studies program will offer a literary reading followed by on Q&A
on their work on Thursday, April 21 from 6:30 – 8 p.m. in Fahy Hall, Room 236 and virtually via Microsoft Teams.
This event is co-sponsored by the Russian and East European Studies Program and the
Slavic Club. Please click here to join the event.
Angela Ajayi, M.A., was born in Jos, Nigeria, to a Ukrainian mother and Nigerian father.
She spent her childhood shuttling between Nigeria and Soviet Ukraine. Angela’s first
story, "Galina," published in Fifth Wednesday Journal, won the 2017 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Her essays,
book reviews and author interviews have appeared in The Common Online, Wild River
Review and the Minneapolis Star Tribune where she is a contributing book critic. A former book editor, she also teaches writing
classes at the Literary Loft Center. She holds a B.A. in English literature from Calvin
University and an M.A. in comparative literature from Columbia University. In her
fiction, she often seeks to explore the intersection of race, gender and class in
cross-cultural spaces. She has a short story, "Our Beautiful Ukrainian Mothers," in
the fall 2021 issue of Pleiades and is writing her first book.
Originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, Maxim Matusevich, Ph.D. moved to the United
States on the eve of Soviet collapse. A well-published scholar of Africa and the Cold
War, he also writes fiction. His short stories, essays, and a couple of novellas appeared
in the Kenyon Review, New England Review, The Bare Life Review, Transitions, San Antonio
Review, MumberMag, Anti-Heroin-Chic, BigCityLit, The Wild Word, Foreign Literary,
ReLevant, East-West Literary Forum, Rivanna Review, WordCity Literary Journal, and a number of other publications.
Categories:
Arts and Culture
