Vitali Vitaliev is a UK-based multi-award-winning author, columnist, editor, broadcaster, and a vastly experienced teacher.
Starting his career in the former USSR, where he became known as the country’s first investigative journalist, he was forced to defect in January 1990. Having worked and lived in Australia, England, Scotland and Ireland, Vitali, is the author of sixteen books (Hutchinson, Hodder & Stoughton, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, etc.), translated into German, Japanese, Italian, Russian, French, Spanish and Finnish. Their genres vary: from journalism, travel and biography to fiction (his fantasy novel ‘Granny Yaga’ was optioned by a Hollywood-based production company) and literary memoirs, with Life as a Literary Device: a Writer’s Manual of Survival, a critically acclaimed paean to the power of literature, as his favourite.
Vitali also worked as a columnist, editor and features writer for The Guardian, The European, the Daily Telegraph, The Herald (in the UK), The Age (in Australia), The Village (in Ireland) and many more, and was shortlisted (eight times) for the UK Columnist of Year award. He has won three Gold TABPI awards for the best regular column.
A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Vitali is a popular public speaker (on the list of The Great British Speakers agency) and media commentator, with a long history of regular appearances on TV and radio. Presently, he contributes a regular ‘Second Life’ column to Prospect magazine.
Vitali’s teaching record includes numerous lectures and seminars in different aspects of Creative Writing and Journalism at universities in the UK, Europe and Australia. In 2021, in his capacity of the Royal Literary Fund Fellow, he worked as a Fellow and Teaching Associate at Magdalene and Wolfson Colleges of the University of Cambridge. For nearly four years, he taught and tutored students in different aspects of Academic and Creative Writing and conducted Writing workshops at the Cambridge Centre for Teaching and Learning (CCTL). His main teaching specialities are Travel Writing, Autobiography, Investigative Journalism, Academic Writing, Creative Non-Fiction, Crime and Fantasy Writing, Overcoming Writer’s Block, Achieving Brevity and Concision, Surviving as a Writer, etc.
Vitali lives with his partner Christine and Tashi, a furry Tibetan Terrier, in a small English town not far from London.
Testimonials
‘… For postgraduates, the focus of supervisions is not on writing style, so I’ve found having discussions with Vitali very helpful. My writing has become more concise (for instance, it has fewer adjectives). My PhD supervisor has a fluid and literary writing style, which I want to emulate, but during supervisions, we only focus on structuring arguments/philosophical content. Having a Royal Literary Fund fellow at Magdalene is invaluable to learn writing skills which are otherwise not taught. Vitali has also recommended some great books and inspired me to think more carefully. I now find myself pausing before starting each sentence to consider its flow and brevity, which has significantly improved my writing.’ AR (Cambridge University feedback)
‘… Vitali has been very helpful with writing matters, and I learned lessons from him that also apply to life… He has brought satire, frankness and a good sense of humour to this college and into the lives of students… He will be dearly missed and deserves to be celebrated for his positive legacy here.
In Arabic, there is something called a ‘wasla.’ It means connector. But it can also refer to people, in the sense of an intermediary. I think that you, Vitali, have been a connector/wasla at college, that you have linked people to one another and gotten them to chat through being so open, approachable and humorous.’ BM (Cambridge University feedback)
‘I am writing to express my heartfelt gratitude for your teaching. Your dedication has greatly influenced my learning experience, and I have seen improvement in my writing skills thanks to your support and encouragement. Your teaching approach and the materials provided have helped me understand more about writing.’ BB (Cambridge University feedback)
Billy Cowan