For many readers, “War and Peace” is simply an intimidating bookend that will eternally hold a place in your to-do list but will never actually be read.

Stephen Blackwell, professor of Russian literature and language, hopes to inspire you to dust off your Tolstoy and get to know the mind of an author that everyone only knows by name.

The first of a series of literature festivals put on by Blackwell in collaboration with the English department, the Leo Tolstoy Festival will take place April 23-24.

“I felt that literature in general is losing the attention it deserves in culture and on campus,” Blackwell said. “I thought that we should have an event once a semester that reminds people of their connection to this history of amazing literature that exists in all these different cultures.”

Besides being a Russian professor, Blackwell is kicking off the series with Tolstoy for many other reasons.

“Tolstoy is the most influential Russian writer among authors and in the culture at large,” Blackwell said. “He has a view of the world, the way human beings are, that he expresses with a beauty and precision that all other authors since him envy and try to match.”

Blackwell brought on Erika Knowles, sophomore in Russian studies, to help him implement the event.

In addition to helping plan the events at UT, Knowles will be leading a discussion group at the public library on “Anna Karenina.”

“Tolstoy is my personal favorite author, and it’s my personal goal to focus on literature for the rest of my life and be a professor of Russian literature,” Knowles said. “This is exactly my thing.”

On campus, there will be multiple lectures and readings, including a staged reading of letters and diaries of Tolstoy and his wife.

“They had a very intense and fraught relationship for many decades,” Blackwell said. “It’s a very complicated story, and it’s going to make a very interesting spectacle on stage.”

Blackwell also discussed the gap between knowledge of Tolstoy and appreciation for Tolstoy.

“I know that around here most people I talk to know about Tolstoy even if they don’t know anything else about Russia, and people who like to read know that they want to read Tolstoy, but they are just scared because the books are so long,” Blackwell explained.

However, Blackwell assures readers that while the novels may be long, “they are page turners.”

Knowles echoes Blackwell’s hope that the festival will make Tolstoy and other Russian authors more approachable.

“From the movie ‘Legally Blonde,’ there’s a character who’s really pretentious and he says ‘Oh I have a master’s degree in Russian literature…’ — but it’s a real thing,” Knowles laughed. “It’s not some strange esoteric thing to do and like.”

Blackwell said students will find more in common with Tolstoy than they may have thought.

“This figure from over 100 years ago was exploring things that they can find are very close to their hearts and close to their deepest concerns about their own lives,” Blackwell said. “ Not only people thinking today are saying things that are relevant, but actually there are things from the past that are still innovative.”

For more information and the full event schedule, visit mfll.utk.edu/tolstoy/.