Born in Siberia, Slava Mogutin is a New York based Russian-American multimedia artist and author exiled from Russia for his outspoken queer writing and activism. A third-generation writer and autodidact photographer, he became the first Russian to be granted political asylum in the US on the grounds of homophobic persecution.

Informed by his bicultural dissident and refugee experience, Mogutin’s work examines the notions of displacement and identity, pride and shame, devotion and disaffection, love and hate.

Mogutin is the author of seven books of writings in Russian, as well as three monographs of photography, Lost Boys, NYC Go-Go, and Bros & Brosephines, and two illustrated collections of poetry, Food Chain and Pictures & Words.

He’s the winner of Andrei Bely Prize for poetry and the Tom of Finland Foundation Award for artistic achievement.

Image credit: SHARE Conference from Beirut, Lebanon - flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/...

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