Zaza Burchuladze
Photo © Hermann Bredehorst

Zaza Burchuladze

Contemporary postmodernist writer and dramatist who graduated from Tbilisi State 

Academy of Fine Arts, he started writing and publishing his books at the age of 24. Until 2001, he published his works under the pen-name of Gregor Zamza, but later used his real name. Z. Burchuladze translated numerous Russian contemporary and classical fiction including works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Vladimir Sorokin. He also was a columnist in the Georgian Playboy Magazine. Because of the stark and filthy realism of his texts, Z. Burchuladze was physically assaulted by some locals and has lived in exile in Berlin since. 

Burchuladze narrates via stream-of-consciousness covering the subject of sex and war as social construction, the limits of nationalistic mentality. He very often uses black and bitter humor which makes his novels easily readable. One of the most important things in his writing is the language he masters on every page to make even the filthy and rigid texts poetic and musical.