David Turashvili
Dawit ( Dato ) Turaschwili (Georgian დავით ( დათო ) ტურაშვილი; born May 10, 1966 in Tbilisi ) is a Georgian writer. He has published short stories, travel stories, screenplays and plays.
Life
Dawit Turaschwili studied philology and art history at the State University of Tbilisi, in Maastricht and London. In 1988 and 1989 he was one of the leaders of student protests on David Goredscha monastery in eastern Georgia. Today he works as a lecturer in modern literature at the University of Tbilisi.
His first story was published in 1988 and is based on the then riots. He published so far nine prose volumes: including Merani ( short stories - 1991), The Feast of the loneliness, the known and the unknown America ( trip report - 1993), Concomitant thought, My Irish Grandpa, It was and it was not, Kathmandu (Travelogue - 1996 ) Tibet is not far, jeans-generation ( play - 2001) and the Georgian night on the Titanic ( narration - 2001). He also wrote several screenplays.
In May 2001, his play Jean generation, late Requiem was premiered in Tbilisi. It came later, also in New York on the stage. Turaschwili thematized in the Tiflisser hijacking, a failed escape attempt several young Georgians in 1984. They had kidnapped a Soviet airliner and tried in vain to force it to land on a western airport. Upon their return, they were sentenced, with the approval of the then Communist Party chief Eduard Shevardnadze to death.
Turaschwili is engaged politically and socially. He participated in the Rose Revolution that led to the resignation of President Shevardnadze. With the director Giorgi Khaindrava and the staff of Tbilisi Freedom Institute Giga Bokeria and Dawit Zurabishvili he made on 10 November 2003 a committee for civil resistance, which campaigned in universities, organizations and the province for action against the government. Later he protested against the construction of the Baku- Tbilisi- Ceyhan pipeline on the edge of the Borjomi - Kharagauli National Park and collects used books for prison libraries.
Turaschwili participated in mountain expeditions in the Caucasus, the Andes and the Himalayas. He speaks English, Russian and Georgian. He is married with Maka Kekelidze and has two daughters.
Works
- Kathmandu. T'bilisi 1996, ISBN 99928-52-68-2
- Unless the Town is Furnished with Cocaine: A Narrative. Net- Bog- clubbing, København 1998, ISBN 87-90733-02-9 in the Internet Archive
- Tibet is not far. T'bilisi 2001, ISBN 99928-52-63-1