Category: Poetry

New Book Alert: Elena Fanailova’s The Russian Version (2nd Edition)

~ Olga Zilberbourg ~ Leave a comment

Author: Elena Fanailova

Translators: Genya Turovskaya and Stephanie Sandler

Publisher: Ugly Duckling Presse

Website: https://uglyducklingpresse.org/publications/the-russian-version-2nd-edition/

Small Press Distribution announcement: ” Poetry. Translated from the Russian by Genya Turovskaya and Stephanie Sandler. THE RUSSIAN VERSION is a collection of poems that spans Russia’s post-Soviet era. Acclaimed journalist and poet, Elena Fanailova tells stories about the various social layers of a stratified and conflicted nation, reclaiming the poet’s role as social critic, while scrutinizing her own position as citizen and poet. Fanailova’s political lyricism casts personal pain into the net of historical suffering.”

Published in 2009 by Ugly Duckling Presse, it received Best Translated Book Award for Poetry from Three Percent. The 2019 second edition of THE RUSSIAN VERSION includes a more recent long poem, ‘Lena and Lena.’

The Cheburashka Collective: New poetry of the post-Soviet diaspora

~ Yelena Furman ~ Leave a comment

“The Cheburashka Collective is a group of women and non-binary writers whose identity has been shaped by immigration from the Soviet Union to the United States. On April 27, 2019, six members of the group, which is named for a beloved Soviet cartoon character, gathered in Philadelphia’s Penn Book Center for a poetry reading. Meduza in English news editor Hilah Kohen sat down with five of those poets before the event. They discussed what shared immigrant experiences can do for collectives, what collectivity can do for poetry, and what poetry can do for our world today. The “Cheburashki” also shared seven of their recent poems, which are reprinted below this interview with the kind permission of their publishers.”

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2019/04/29/the-cheburashka-collective-new-poetry-of-the-post-soviet-diaspora