Finding the lifeboat gets you to the island but then you have to build your world once you land. - Matt Criscuola
Fais ce que dois, advienne que pourra.
Greetings, wanderer.
My name is Ivan.
I write fiction, essays, sometimes review films and books, and translate old Russian texts. In my work, I explore contemporary and near-future problems often dissecting them from whimsical and darkly comical angles.
I love literature, stylised prose, allegories, absurd and satire, weirdo characters talking and thinking out loud, magic realism, a mixture of real and surreal. These things have been influencing me a lot and perhaps some of them could be traced in my work, too. But this will be up to you to decide.
If you like the idea of reading something like I described above, … well, you know what to do.
My current focus is short fiction but you can find all my work on my website.
If you don’t know where to start…
here are four short stories:
The Blue Pill Of Atlantis is a very short story about a forgotten legacy.
Phantomic Rabbits is a story about one mysterious novelist giving his first podcast interview.
Brainlephant is a short story about a guy who gets addicted to fortune cookies.
The Mysterious Trip of Mark Markethrudder is a short story about a little man fighting a universal entity.
and three essays:
Man Against Marketing is about a new kind of old narrative conflict in which we are all engaged.
My inner cynic wants to talk is a short stream of consciousness whose mind is boggled by the modern state of positivity, negativity, optimism, pessimism, sincerity, and openmindedness.
On Names and Pseudonyms – lessons and facts about using different names.
and two translations (from Russian):
Eisenstein about Joyce is a translation of a fragment from Sergei Eisenstein’s memoirs written about his encounters with James Joyce.
Rules For Aspiring Authors by Chekhov is another translation of a quite obscure piece with plenty of footnotes included.
The best way to contact me is to write an email (hey@ioann.xyz).