Dawit Turashvili

Dawit Turashwili (2017)

Dawit (Dato) Turashvili ( Georgian დავით (დათო) ტურაშვილი ; born May 10, 1966 in Tbilisi ) is a Georgian writer . He published short stories, travelogues, scripts and plays.

Life

Dawit Turashvili studied philology and art studies at the State University of Tbilisi , in Maastricht and London . In 1988 and 1989 he was one of the leaders of student protests at David Goredja Monastery in eastern Georgia. Today he works as a lecturer in modern literature at the University of Tbilisi.

His first story was published in 1988 and is based on the tumult at the time. He has published nine volumes of prose so far: including Merani (short stories - 1991), The Festival of Solitude , Known and Unknown America (Travel Report - 1993), Accompanying Thought , My Irish Grandfather , It Was and It Wasn't , Kathmandu (Travel Report - 1998), Tibet is not far , Jeans Generation (play - 2001) and The Georgian Night on the Titanic (story - 2001). He also wrote several scripts.

In May 2001 his play Jeans Generation, Belated Requiem was premiered in Tbilisi. It was later staged in New York as well . Turashvili dealt with the plane hijacking in Tbilisi , a failed escape attempt by several young Georgians in 1984. They hijacked a Soviet airline plane and tried in vain to force it to land at a western airport. After their return they were sentenced to death with the approval of the then Communist Party leader Eduard Shevardnadze .

Turashvili is politically and socially engaged. He took part in the Rose Revolution , which led to the resignation of President Shevardnadze. With the director Giorgi Chaindrawa and the employees of the Tbilisi Freedom Institute Giga Bokeria and Dawit Zurabishvili , he formed a committee for civil resistance on November 10, 2003 , which promoted measures against the government in universities, organizations and the province. He later protested against the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline on the edge of Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park and collects used books for prison libraries.

Turashvili has participated in mountain expeditions to the Caucasus , the Andes and the Himalayas . He speaks English, Russian and Georgian. He is married to Maka Kekelidze and has two daughters.

Works

• Kathmandu. T'bilisi 1996, ISBN 99928-52-68-2
• Unless the Town is Furnished with Cocaine: A Narrative. ( Memento of April 23, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Net-Bog-Clubben, København 1998, ISBN 87-90733-02-9
• Tibet is not far . T'bilisi 2001, ISBN 99928-52-63-1
• West flight. Translated from Georgian by Anastasia Kamarauli, Wagenbach, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-8031-2728-0

Web links

Commons : David Turashvili  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Theater review: generation of jeans, belated requiem