Arts and culture | Q&A
Guram Odisharia: Literary responses to the Abkhaz-Georgian conflict
- Date
- Friday 5 December 2025
- Time
- Address
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 1.48
Leiden University will host a lecture and Q&A session to celebrate mr. Guram Odisharia and the recent Dutch translation of his work.
Guram Odisharia is an influential poet, writer, playwright and public figure from Abkhazia, Georgia. His works directed against war are read with equal interest by Georgians, Abkhaz, as well as those who have recently become victims of aggression in various regions. Particularly noteworthy are: "The Black Sea Ocean", "Return to Sukhumi", "The President's Cat", "The Bomb with eyeglasses", "The Pass of the Displaced" and other works, both fiction and documentary. His works have been translated into Abkhaz and many other languages, including, recently, Dutch.
At the event, Guram Odisharia himself will speak about the Abkhaz-Georgian conflict is reflected in his novels. Archil Djavakhadze, who translated Odisharia’s last novel "The bomb with eyeglasses" from Georgian into Dutch, will speak about Odisharias's activities as a writer and public figure. Additionally, mr. Odisharia will answer questions about the Abkhaz-Georgian conflict and his thoughts on a potential regulation of this conflict.
Working language of the event will be Dutch, although English and Georgian will also be present.
Guram Odisharia graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of Sukhumi University 1975. He worked as a journalist and as a referent at the Department of Culture, Education and Health Protection of the Council of Ministers of Abkhazia. In 2012-2014, he was the Minister of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia. Mr. Odisharia is a conflictologist and has participated in over 70 (Georgian-Abkhaz, Georgian-Ossetian, Caucasian) international conferences in this domain. He was an advisor to the Prime Minister of Georgia on conflict resolution.