Vitali Vitaliev

Vitali Vitaliev (Виталий Витальев) is a Ukrainian-born journalist and writer who has worked in Russia, the UK, Australia and Ireland.

Biography

Vitaliev was born in 1954 in Kharkov, Ukraine. He graduated from Kharkov University in French and English, working as an interpreter and translator before becoming a journalist in 1981. He worked as a special correspondent for "Krokodil" magazine in Moscow when he appeared as Clive James' 'Moscow Correspondent' on "Saturday Night Clive". On 31 January 1990 he and his family 'defected', moving first to London, then taking up residence (and citizenship) in Australia. After a few years there he moved back to the UK, living in London. He is now back in London again after spending some time in Edinburgh and Dublin.

Career

Journalism

Vitaliev's journalism work in the former Soviet Union included stories and essays for "Ogonyok", "Literaturnaya Gazeta" and "Nedelya" as well as "Krokodil", earning him the Golden Calf Literary Award, five annual Krokodil Awards, the Journalist of the Year Honorary Diploma for 1987 and the 1989 Ilf and Petrov Prize for Satirical Journalism.

He has worked for newspapers in Australia, such as "The Age"; and for the Irish magazine "Village". In the UK he was written and worked for "Punch", "The Guardian", "The Spectator", "The European", "The Herald", "Russian London Courier" and "The Daily Telegraph". In 2006-07 he worked as Editor-at-Large of "Entrepreneur" magazine, UK, and at present is Features Editor of "E&T" magazine.

Television

Vitaliev has written and presented several television documentaries for Channel 4, ABC and the BBC, including "Tasmania", "Moscow Central", "Vitali's Australia", "My Friend Little Ben" (in BBC1's "Byline" series, 1990) and "The Train To Freedom" – a programme in the series "Travels With My Camera" (Channel 4, 1994). He has been a guest on "After Dark" and "Have I Got News for You" for the BBC, and for almost 3 years appeared regularly in "Europe Direct", BBC World's magazine programme on weekday evenings. His appearances on BBC Radio 4 include "Breakaway", "Excess Baggage" and his own series "Eye on the East". In 2007, he was a researcher and script-writer for the BBC2 comedy quiz TV show "QI".

Awards

In the West, Vitaliev has won several literary and journalistic awards, including The Royal Melbourne Show Journalism Award (First Prize) in Australia, RTS Award for the best TV entertainment Show of 2007 (as part of the "QI" team) in the UK and was appointed Nieman Fellow in Journalism (Harvard University, USA) in 1990.

Bibilography

First editions

* 1987 "King of the Bar" Pravda Publishers. A collection of articles written for "Krokodil" magazine (in Russian).
* 1990 "Special Correspondent – Investigating in the Soviet Union", Hutchinson, ISBN 0-09-174297-8; translated into German, French & Japanese
* 1991 "Dateline Freedom – Revelations of an Unwilling Exile", Hutchinson, ISBN 0-09-174677-9.
* 1991 "Vitali's Australia", Random House, ISBN 0-09-182554-7
* 1993 "The Third Trinity" (with Derek Kartun), Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-55366-9; Seven editions in Germany
* 1995 "Little is the Light- Nostalgic Travels in the Mini-states of Europe", Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-671-71925-4
* 1997 "Dreams on Hitler's Couch", RC Books, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 1-86066-088-6
* 1999 "Borders Up! Eastern Europe Through the Bottom of a Glass", Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-81810-8
* 2008 "Vitali's Ireland. Time Travels in the Celtic Tiger", Gill & Macmillan, September, ISBN 978-0717140763
* 2008 "Passport to Enclavia. Travels in Search of a European Identity", Reportage Press, October, ISBN 978-0955830297

Anthologies

* "Granta 64, Winter 1998" "Russia", "The Last Eighteen Drops" (15 pages).
* "QI Annual", Faber & Faber, 2007. In collaboration.
* "The Best of Ogonyok. The New Journalism of Glasnost". William Heinemann, 1990. Three stories.
* "The New Soviet Journalism: The Best of Soviet Weekly Ogonyok", Beacon Pr, 1991, Three stories.
* "The Penguin Book of Fights, Feuds & Heartfelt Hatreds. An Anthology of Antipathy". Hardcover: Viking, 1992. Paperback: Penguin Books Ltd, 1993. One story
* "Central Asia: Threats, Attacks, Arrests & Harassment of Human Rights Defenders". One of three authors/editors. Front Line, 2006

Books to be published

** "Life as a Literary Device", Beautiful Books, 2009

Quotes

"Many writers (including yours truly) are often criticized for being obsessed with their past. I always thought such criticism was unfair: the past is the writer's working material, and telling him off for being engrossed in it is like telling off a wood carver for being obsessed with wood..."

External links

* [http://www.travelintelligence.net/php/writers/writ.php?id=64 More than a dozen of his travel articles]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/GWeekly/Story/0,3939,322570,00.html A piece from "The Guardian"]
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?xml=/travel/2000/12/04/etchic4.xml Several articles from "The Daily Telegraph"]