During his visit to Buenos Aires, British publisher and Patron of the Eurasian Creative Guild (ECG) Marat Akhmedjanov met with renowned Argentine translator and literary scholar Alejandro Ariel González, one of the world’s leading Spanish-speaking experts on Russian literature.
Alejandro González is the founder and President of the Argentine Dostoevsky Society, serves on the board of the International Dostoevsky Society, and has translated more than seventy works by Russian authors into Spanish. In 2014, he received the prestigious Read Russia Prize for his translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Double. His extensive body of work includes translations of Dostoevsky, Gogol, Turgenev, Bulgakov, Andreyev, and many other classics of Russian literature.
The meeting focused on opportunities to translate contemporary Central Asian authors into Spanish, followed by publication and promotion throughout Argentina and the wider Latin American region.
As an initial step, the parties discussed publishing several titles from Hertfordshire Press and presenting them at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair in the spring of 2027. Recognised as one of the world’s largest publishing events, the fair attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors, along with leading publishers, literary agents, and cultural institutions from around the globe each year.
Among the works that attracted Alejandro González’s particular interest were the books by Marinika Babanazarova dedicated to Igor Savitsky and his extraordinary artistic legacy. The participants also discussed the work of Kazakh poet and writer Ermek Amanshayev, whose collection has already been published in French, Russian, Kazakh, and English. A Spanish edition is now being considered as the next step in introducing his work to readers across Latin America.
According to the participants, expanding literary translation between Central Asia and Latin America will strengthen cultural dialogue between the two regions while giving Central Asian authors access to one of the world’s largest Spanish-speaking audiences.