Launch of ‘The Refugee Chronicles’, a new novel by Evgeny Shtorn with Reading + Conversation with the author
Launch of ‘The Refugee Chronicles’, a new novel by Evgeny Shtorn with Reading + Conversation with the author
October 21 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm IST
A launch of Evgeny Shtorn’s English-language novel The Refugee Chronicles, including a reading followed by conversation with the author and chair.
Drawing on Shtorn’s asylum journey, the book offers a deeply human account of displacement and the experience of Ireland’s Direct Provision system. Presented by Skein Press.
Book Your Place
Admission Free. No booking required
Artists
Evgeny Shtorn, writer, activist and researcher
Full Event Details
Skein Press intends to launch our new novel ‘The Refugee Chronicles’ by Evgeny Shtorn on Wednesday 21 October 2026, from 6 to 7pm at Hodges Figgis Dublin. The launch will include a reading from the novel, followed by a conversation between the author and the event chair.
Drawn from the diaries Shtorn kept throughout his asylum journey, The Refugee Chronicles is a deeply human portrait of displacement in twenty-first-century Europe. Part fiction, part memoir, it lifts 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.
The Refugee Chronicles draws from Shtorn’s personal experience as an asylum seeker in Ireland. Originally from St Petersburg, Shtorn was forced to flee Russia in 2018 due to government scrutiny of his activist work in human rights and LGBT advocacy. In 2019, he was granted international protection in the Republic of Ireland. His experience of claiming asylum made him question clear-cut boundaries between the West and the East along the lines of guarantees and protections of human rights, and this experience is what drove him to write this book.
The book was originally written in Russian and first published by an independent press, Poryadok Slov, in St. Petersburg in 2020, with the support of Heinrich Boell Stiftung. This foundation was subsequently designated an ‘undesirable organisation’ in Russia, which made the book unavailable on Russian territory. Skein is now publishing, for the first time, an English edition, expertly and empathetically translated by Dr Alexandra Novitskaya, whose research specialities include queer migration and political asylum, LGBTQ human rights, and geopolitics of homo- and transphobia. This edition provides vital counter-narrative to the current discourse around migration and asylum seeking in Ireland and the wider European context.
This event is presented by Skein Press
Skein curates and publishes thought-provoking stories not commonly featured in the literary arts in Ireland. We are passionate about storytelling and counter-storytelling in all its forms and facilitate writers and artists to bring their work to the public through traditional publishing as well as other media.
Speaker Biographies:
Evgeny Shtorn is a writer, activist and researcher from St Petersburg, Russia. Forced to leave his home country in 2018 he was granted international protection in Ireland in 2019. His writing has been published in academic journals, anthologies and media outlets in Russia, Spain, Germany and Ireland. As an activist, he has been involved in human rights and LGBTQ+ advocacy for almost two decades and is a co-founder of Queer Diaspora Ireland. In 2020 he was named GALAS Person of the Year by the National LGBT Federation of Ireland. The Refugee Chronicles was originally published in Russian in 2020 and is his first book to appear in English translation.
Organisations Involved / Partner Organisation(s):
