Maxim D. Shrayer

Maxim D. Shrayer is a bilingual author and a professor at Boston College. He was born in Moscow and emigrated in 1987. His recent books include A Russian Immigrant: Three Novellas and Immigrant Baggage, a memoir. Shrayer’s new collection of poetry, Kinship, was published in May 2024. Shrayer’s works have been translated into 13 languages.

Nine Lives
The lives and legacies of the refusenik writer David Shrayer-Petrov
byMaxim D. Shrayer
FICTION
The St. Petersburg Traveling Circus
byMaxim D. Shrayer
The Silencing of the Jewish Poet
A new survey reveals an alarming degree of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias in American literary circles and institutions
byMaxim D. Shrayer
Poetry After October 7th
The high arts are becoming an open sewer fueled by antisemitic hate. How can we continue to publish and create?
byMaxim D. Shrayer
No-Fly Zone
A story of shattered bones and broken promises
byMaxim D. Shrayer
If I Must Die …
On the intifada generation that sacrificed its poets
byMaxim D. Shrayer
Nabokov, Religion, and the Holocaust
The Russian American master and the anxieties of Jewish conversion
byMaxim D. Shrayer
In Memory of Milan Kundera
On the passing of the great Czech writer and dissident
byMaxim D. Shrayer
FICTION
In the Net of Composer N.
A tale of collaboration
byMaxim D. Shrayer
FICTION
‘In the Basement,’ a Short Story by Isaac Babel
A new English translation for Purim
byMaxim D. Shrayer
Tolstoy and ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’
Martin McDonagh’s new film reanimates the legacy of the Russian classic
byMaxim D. Shrayer
My Socialist Uncle Munia
A visit from a long-lost relative brings memories from Ukraine, and more than a few misadventures
byMaxim D. Shrayer
A Jewish-Ukrainian Marriage
A group of ex-Soviets waits for visas and forms unexpected alliances on an Italian beach
byMaxim D. Shrayer
Punishing All Things Russian for Putin’s Crimes
The moral and historical illiteracy of boycotting Russian identity and culture
byMaxim D. Shrayer
FICTION
A Brief History of the Jewdle
A Purim spiel on one of Judaism’s most majestic creatures
byMaxim D. Shrayer
Yelets Women’s High School
A visit back to Russia, and an unceremonious encounter with the theatrics of the past
byMaxim D. Shrayer
Only One Day in Venice
A tale of lost luggage and a Jewish Christmas miracle
byMaxim D. Shrayer
Romance with a Mortician
Thinking about one’s funeral honors during a visit to New York
byMaxim D. Shrayer