The Refugee Chronicles: Escaping Russia with Evgeny Shtorn
Scéalta na nDídeanaithe: Ag éalú ón Rúis le Evgeny Shtorn
Sat 21 Nov 6pm - 7pm
This event is a discussion of Evgeny Shtorn’s debut novel ‘The Refugee Chronicles’. Evgeny will be in conversation with poet and activist Sarah Clancy, discussing how his own experience of seeking asylum as a queer person influenced this novel and his decision to write it. The book has been translated from the Russian by Alexandra Novitskaya, but the Russian edition is now banned in Russian territories. This marks the first English translation (and the only available version) of this incredibly timely account; an (almost) true story that touches on migration, queerness, the European project, the idea of borders, the fallibility of human nature and the strange threads that bind us all together.
Evgeny Shtorn is an Irish Russophone writer, activist, and researcher. He was forced to flee Russia in 2018 and was granted international protection in Ireland in 2019. He currently researches authoritarian governance, analysing its effects on civil society, and supporting human rights work on the ground. ‘The Refugee Chronicles’ is his debut novel and has been described by actor Stephen Rea as ‘a staggering work of literature’. Evgeny’s story has been the subject of a New Yorker podcast entitled ‘A Gay Russian, Exiled in Ireland’ (2019) in which journalist Masha Gessen spoke with Evgeny about seeking refuge as a stateless person, as well as his experience of living as a queer activist in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Evgeny will be in conversation with Sarah Clancy. Sarah has published three poetry collections, and also works in community development. She has been involved in many seismic campaigns including those concerning socio-economic rights, marriage equality, reproductive and migrant rights. In 2025, she had the life-changing opportunity to take part in the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civil society attempt to break the illegal Israeli siege on Gaza.
Evgeny Shtorn writes with clarity, depth and humour about the erasure, displacement and violent bureaucracy he has endured. His novel is essential reading for anyone interested in human rights, lifting the veil on the patently absurd and fundamentally flawed system of Direct Provision – a world that is often discussed in the abstract but rarely narrated from within.
