Lela Kodalashvili: Baring the Feelings

Born in 1969, Lela Kodalashvili is a contemporary Georgian writer, playwright and literary critic. She holds a master’s degree in journalism and philosophy from Tbilisi State University, and is currently a style editor for the Georgian literary journal Akhali Saunje. Her publications have appeared in number of Georgian literary journals and newspapers, and her play Wives Plan to Betray was staged at the Rustaveli National Theatre in Tbilisi. She takes part in Live Books, a project organized by the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia, and was invited to the Authors’ Reading Month literary festival in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine. In 2017, she is invited to read a report about Georgian post-soviet literature at a conference organized by the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris, France. Her short stories, plays and poems have been translated into Russian, English, French, Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Ukrainian. Lela ‘moulds characters bravely, with mastery. She bares emotions and names painful feelings that spread through time or pile up in shorter periods.’