life rattle show no. 1209

Presented on Sunday, June 17, 2012

Hosted by laurie kallis

featuring

Anna Konareva reading her stories
"Lattes and Ballet Classes"
"Chardonnay"
and
"Konarev"

tonight's Show

Tonight, on Life Rattle Number 1209, we present three more new stories from Anna Konareva.

Anna Konareva was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1989. Konareva attended a visual arts school in Moscow, but spent most of her childhood many hours away from the big city—reading, biking, swimming and fishing in her Grandma’s village. Konareva’s Grandma was and is very passionate about literature and she became the biggest influence on Konareva’s love for writing. Konareva’s parents, both successful artists and designers, wanted her to pursue a career in visual arts. But, after immigrating to Canada in 2002, Konareva put away her graphic pencils and paintbrushes, and pursued studies in writing.

Anna Konareva now lives in Mississauga, Ontario and continues to express her creativity in this craft.

Tonight's stories come from the “Russian Stories” chapter of Konareva’s recently published collection Barbie Dolls and Boas. Earlier this month, the stories in this book, specifically, “Trains, Rust and Mould,” which you heard last week on Life Rattle, garnered a Mississauga Art Council’s 2012 Marty Emerging Literary Arts Award.

The three stories featured on tonight’s program, continue the tale of a Moscow family, newly settled in Canada, as Anna and Sasha grow into young adults and assimilate the North American lifestyle while still holding onto to the Russian roots of their childhood.

"Lattes and Ballet Classes," tonight's first story is set in a swanky coffee shop in Oakville, Ontario and Boston, Massachusetts.

"Chardonnay," tonight's second story bring us right into the kitchen, the heart of any family, where Konarev weaves dialogue that is so believable and familiar that you feel you know these characters.

With a hats off to Father’s Day, tonight’s final story, “Konarev,” centers on a long-distance phonecall between a daughter and her father. Their bittersweet conversation, full of frustration and pain and love, reveals more of the true nature of the father-child relationship than all the Hallmark cards on the drugstore racks.