Staff writers Matthew Gay and Elisha Dura attended an event moderated by Slavic language professor Mark Lipovetsky on “What Makes a Good Short Story Good?” with Russian author Maxim Osipov.

You might not expect a cardiologist to end up writing short stories, but Russian writer and cardiologist Maxim Osipov crossed this boundary, pivoting from his career in medicine to become a successful writer and playwright. In celebration of Osipov’s new book of short stories, Kilometer 101, the Harriman Institute at Columbia hosted a conversation with the physician-turned-writer Maxim Osipov to discuss the components of a good short story. The room was filled with anticipation to hear from Osipov on his background, writing process, and views on current Russian politics, as well as a private reading of a short story from his new book. 

Since publishing his first essay in 2007, Osipov has published six novellas, 12 short stories, three plays, and 12 essays. The transition from physician to writer was quite unexpected for him, Osipov joked, because his work was sent to a magazine by his late friend’s wife, whom he had told to keep his writing private. After leaving the cardiology practice—despite it being “close to [his] heart”—and working as an editor for medical texts, Osipov felt as though he was still missing something in his career. He had been a physician and a publisher, but he realized that he wanted to follow his instinct to become a writer, too. Starting with a personal diary, Osipov began working with his literary side, and when his work was involuntarily shared with a publisher, he went with it. Now, his abundance of writings have been translated into 20 languages, making his work more accessible around the world. 

After discussing his background, Osipov pivoted to answer the titular question of the talk. But first, Osipov explained the origin of the question. After picking Osipov up from a writer’s house in Amsterdam, his Uber driver asked him outright: “What makes a good short story good?” In response, Osipov offered some insight into the form of short stories by equating them to musical sonatas. Short stories, like sonatas, last between 15 and 40 minutes and can be appreciated long after the reader’s first encounter with them. Short stories are also closer to poetry than to novels, and they demand more attention from the reader. Osipov and his Uber driver remained in the car long after they reached his destination discussing the question at hand.

Following this anecdote, Osipov broke down the components of a good short story into three crucial categories: style, plot, and character. Although he discussed all three, the most important piece of a good short story was, in his eyes, the characters. “We live with people, we don’t live with their stories,” Osipov explained. Citing Tolstoy’s War and Peace as his prime example, Osipov argued that reading works with great characters allows you to know and understand people really well in your own life. 

To illustrate these three points, Osipov read his short story “Big Opportunities,” an interesting psychological examination of a woman and the Russian man who saved her life and allowed her to escape the country with her daughter. This story exemplified Osipov’s important aspects of a short story—style, plot, and character—remarkably well. The two unnamed characters were interesting, despite being vague, and the plot was clear and concise with deeply political undertones. Osipov’s style as a writer is elusive and mysterious, almost deceptively simple. His dialogue is sharp, and his characters have an uncharted depth to them. “Big Opportunities” is a great example of what, according to Osipov, makes a great short story—even if he is a little biased. 

Next, the moderator opened the floor to questions, leading to some political debate over current Russian politics. An audience member, inspired by the recent New Yorker article by contemporary Turkish writer and scholar Elif Batuman titled “Rereading Russian Classics in the Shadow of the Ukraine War,” asked Osipov whether or not the Russian classics foreshadowed recent Russian imperialism. Osipov answered that all countries are inherently imperialist, and that the problem with Russian imperialism is that Russia was not offering anything in the way of helping Ukraine. In other words, to Osipov, imperialism and war-like aggression are not mutually exclusive. 

To close, Osipov described his next literary venture to the crowd: a magazine called The Fifth Wave, named after the five waves of immigration out of Russia that have happened in the last century. In creating The Fifth Wave, Osipov hopes to combat Russian propaganda by giving an uncensored voice to Russian immigrants and others who are as adamantly against the war in Ukraine as he is. Afterwards, Osipov invited the audience to join him for a brief reception to ask him further questions.

Writing via Wikimedia Commons