Emil Draitser is an author and professor of Russian at Hunter College, New York. He has published 12 books and over 100 essays and short fiction, and is a three-time recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts fellowships in writing
Emil Draitser grew up in a Jewish family in the Soviet Union in the post-World War II years, in the anti-Semitic atmosphere of late Stalinism, at a time when Jews were forced to be silent about their religion and often tried to change their Jewish names. It was an oppressive childhood filled with suspicion and mistrust. As a young student, Draitser excelled at literature and decided that he wanted to be a journalist, despite his mother's preference that he study engineering. At that time, Jews attempting to enter the humanities encountered resistance, as Soviet system saw those areas as politically vulnerable and felt that Jews entering them would try to subvert the system. Despite this, Draitser earned degrees first in engineering, and later in journalism.
Draitser has published both fiction and nonfiction since 1965. His work has appeared in leading Soviet Russian journals (including Youth, Literary Gazette, and Crocodile) under his pen name "Emil Abramov." He began his writing career as a freelancer contributing satirical articles to Soviet newspapers and magazines, though he had to be careful about what he wrote. For example, while he could criticize a particular factory for the poor workmanship of goods it produced, he could not criticize the economic system as a whole, although it became increasingly clear to him that the lack of competition that would inspire innovation combined with the Soviet mandate to guarantee work for all employees, regardless of their work ethic, made it impossible to produce quality products.[1] Eventually, Draitser wrote an article critical of an important official. This caused the author to be blacklisted and prompted him to leave for the United States.
He settled in Los Angeles, where he earned a Ph.D. in Russian literature from the University of California. In 1986, he accepted a position at Hunter College in New York City, where he continues to teach. His first book published in the United States, Forbidden Laughter (1980) brought him national attention. Feature articles on him and his book appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. He has appeared on NBC News with Tom Brokaw, the Merv Griffin Show, and National Public Radio. Regarding his most recent book, Shush! Growing up Jewish under Stalin: A Memoir, Draitser was interviewed on the Leonard Lopate Show on New York Public Radio.
Besides books, Draitser's essays and short stories have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Partisan Review, North American Review, Prism International, and many other American and Canadian periodicals. His fiction has also appeared in Russian, Polish, and Israeli journals. Draitser's research and writing have been supported by grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Social Science Foundation, and numerous grants from the City University of New York. He is also a three-time recipient of fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. He has been awarded residencies at the Vermont Arts Studios, Byrdcliffe Woodstock Art Colony, and Banff Center for the Arts (Canada). Since spring 2009, he has been working on the sequel to his memoir, which will cover his adulthood and move to the United States. Draitser's biography of a Russian super-spy he met back in his Soviet days as a freelance journalist is scheduled for publication by Northwestern University Press in spring 2010.
