Stefan Sullivan

Born in 1966, Stefan Sullivan grew up in Washington D.C., southern Germany, and rural Illinois. He studied Political Science and Russian at Middlebury, and spent his junior year abroad in Paris and Moscow. After a year as a “Sovietologist” at SRI International, a Washington defense contractor, he embarked on an Oxford PhD about Jesus in 19th Century German philosophy (supervised by Leszek Kolakowksi and John Torrance). Throughout the early 1990s, as a break from Hegeliana and biblical exegesis, Sullivan also routinely visited Russia in various guises: as journalist, NGO operative in the war zones of the Caucasus, and quixotic adventurer in the outer reaches of Siberia.

After completing his dissertation in 1993, Sullivan returned to Siberia as a biznesmen in the oil and gas region of Tyumen: funny money, dark suits and the powder blue Mercedes 6-door; in short, material for a first novel. Published in 2002, the novel won widespread critical acclaim, comparisons to Henry Miller, Boris Vian, and Thomas Pynchon, and a Discovery Award at the Hollywood Film Festival. As an arctic gonzo Bildungsroman, it follows the first-person narrator through a gamut of youthful experimentation: from soulful (or rancid) bohemian decadence to Rolex-wristed money-grabbing, with the usual perilous consequences.

His next book, Marx for a Post-Communist Era: On Poverty, Corruption and Banality (Routledge, 2002), heralded a return to philosophy, but in a more accessible non-academic style. Drawing on extensive exposure to the developing world (besides Russia, he also lived two years in Thailand in the late 1990s), it’s an essayistic take on Marx’s legacy and the ongoing tensions between market interests and the public good.

In addition to books and academic articles, Sullivan has contributed to The Washington Post, Newsweek, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington City Paper, the Washington Times, and Die Sueddeutsche Zeitung. In 2003, his Sueddeutsche Zeitung Magazin story on the Argentine elite was nominated for a Hansel Mieth prize for best magazine feature writing. He has also made numerous appearances on German radio, including leading literary talk shows.

Outside of writing, Sullivan has had a lifelong interest in piano and church organ. In Oxford, he was the house lounge pianist at the hot spot Freud’s on Walton Street, and in Washington, hosted a weekly piano/​vocals act at Staccato on the Adams Morgan nightlife strip. After a move to Switzerland in 2008, he recorded his first album with veteran Berlin drummer and Tiger Lillies sound designer, Claus Bühler. Entitled Memory Mound, and featuring a cast of talented guest artists, the album offers up a dense, lyric-driven mix of electro punk, Old School rap, Euro lounge, and Southern techno boogie. The lyrics, penned by Sullivan, draw heavily on bizarre afterhours moments from his life in Moscow, Paris, Bangkok and London. WNYU Radio has rightfully dubbed it: "an upbeat, off-kilter homage to hedonism."

Sullivan has since returned to Washington, and resides with his wife, Marina, and two young boys in the Adams Morgan neighborhood.