Writers or poets often appear among language teachers. Poor is that philologist who does not dream of literary laurels. Someone comes to this later, and someone sooner. Before that it was at school or on the school bench.
Sakhalin State University has several such examples: both in the past and in the present. Anna Safonova, a member of the Union of Writers of Russia, at one time became the youngest of the island candidates for membership in the creative community of masters of the pen.
A graduate of Sakhalin State University, Daria Eremeeva has lived in Moscow for many years, published in the most famous magazines, is the author of several books, a finalist and laureate of writing contests, a guest of television programs.
We hope that the literary future will certainly happen to the five-year-old student of the Department of Russian Language and Literature of the Island University Svetlana Zemnitskaya. Since the fall of last year, the novel of a girl who goes by the name Lana has been published on the Liters website – the largest platform for e-publications and audiobooks in the Russian language. After all, not everyone can present the fruit of their journalistic or artistic reflections in this way.
Lana Zemnitskaya’s first book is Patient #666. If I had a choice, I would not use such a combination of numbers associated with the number of the beast. But that is the author’s right. Sakhalin’s debut work is a mixture of political and family detective story, in which there is room for betrayal and love, good and evil. The plot of the novel is so twisted that even for me, initially skeptical, the fate of the two characters turned out to be incredibly interesting. The young author undoubtedly manages to maintain the intrigue until the last pages of this saga, which takes place in a mental hospital and later in the mansion of the rich parents of the “patient”.
This fall, Lana Zemnitskaya delighted readers (and you can check the existence of such people by reading amateur reviews of the novel on the Internet) with a new book. This time – a story for teenagers (the book has a +12 designation) “Return the star to the sky.” It also still exists in electronic form, but can be sent to the buyer in traditional paper form if desired.
The main character is fourteen-year-old Zhenya Streltsova. A girl’s accidental wish to turn into a doll comes true. The world of dolls and other toys is more complex than the world of people. But after this discovery, Zhenya certainly wants to return to her usual state, in which she will try to become happy. But for the fulfillment of this wish it is now necessary for the star to return to the sky.
I think teenage readers will definitely recognize one of South Sakhalin’s quantoriums in Neutronium and City Mall in Town Hall. Visible in the book and other realities: but let this remain a mystery to those who have not yet read the story.
The high quality of Lana Zemnitskaya’s prose was appreciated not only by her teachers and classmates (and they can be subjective), but also at an open meeting of the creative association “Lira” in the regional library. In October, the student presented several of her stories to the court of already respected masters (and among them members of the Union of Writers of Russia – Nikolai Tarasov, Anna Safonova, Elena Shevych). The discussion was a result of what was already known in the university environment. Lana Zemnitskaya is a young writer whose name, we hope, will soon appear on the literary map of our country.
Elena Ikonnikova, professor at Sakhalin State University.