Nadezhda Voinova

Russia—Sweden

Nadezhda Voinova was born in 1974 in Saint-Petersburg, worked as an art photographer, art journalist, curator, lived in Sweden, Austria, Kazakhstan. Since 2016 is active as a translator of contemporary Swedish poetry into Russian.

In our residence Nadezhda Voinova and Alyosha Prokopiev in May/June 2017 were working on their translations of the Swedish participants of “Poetry without borders” festival: Anna Axfors, Ida Börjel, Naima Chahboun and Ann Jäderlund. Then Nadezhda was back to us in August 2017 preparing the Russian translation of Bruno K. Öijer's selected poems.

Daria Sukhovey

Russia

Daria Sukhovey is a poet, literary promoter and scholar from Russia. She was born in 1977 in Leningrad and graduated from the Saint-Petersburg University, then got her PhD with the thesis on the visual aspects of contemporary Russian poetry. She has published three poetry collections and many critical reviews, regularly contributes to the book chronicle of “Vozdukh” poetry magazine. Since 1999 she runs “Saint-Petersburg literary guide”, online timetable of literary events in the city. Since 2001 she curated about 15 poetry festivals in different Russian cities.

In our residence Daria Sukhovey in December 2016 finished her work on the translation of Yukhim Yuzevir's collected poems from Ukrainian.

Aleksandra Samarina

Russia

Aleksandra Samarina is a translator and poet from Russia. She was born in 1994 in Moscow and graduated from the translation department of Maxim Gorky Literature Institute. In 2012 she participated in the International Writing Program “Between the Lines” of Iowa University. In 2014 she finished second in the poetry competition of the Institute of Journalism and Creative Writing in Moscow.

In 2016 Aleksandra Samarina has submitted her translation of Don Delillo's Midnight in Dostoevsky for Nora Gal Award for translating short prose from English into Russian; this work won the special award for a young translator co-sponsored with Literature Without Borders. In our residence Aleksandra Samarina in August 2016 was improving her Delillo's translation.

Galina Rymbu

Russia—Ukraine

Galina Rymbu is a Russian poet and curator. She was born in 1990 in Omsk, studied at Omsk Pedagogical University and eventually graduated from the Literary Institute in Moscow. After studying social and political philosophy in Saint-Petersburg she settled in Lviv, Ukraine, in 2018. Her poetry is published in many languages, and in addition to three her poetry collections in Russian there are also her books in English, Dutch and Latvian translation. In 2017 she was declared winner of the first International festival “Poetry without borders” in Riga.

In our residence Galina Rymbu in August 2019 translated from Belarusian Valzhyna Mort's collected poems.

Alyosha Prokopiev

Russia

Alyosha Prokopiev is a translator and poet from Russia. He was born in 1957 in Cheboksary and graduated from the art history department of the Moscow State University. He worked as a night watchman for a long time, then taught poetry translation in the Literature Institute. He has published three poetry collections on his own right and a great variety of poetry translations from German, Swedish and other languages including works by JM Hopkins, Rilke, Trakl, Celan, Hertha Müller, Tomas Tranströmer, Inger Christensen. He also runs the poetry festival in Cheboksary and the workshop for young translators of Scandinavian poetry in Sviyazhsk.

In our residence Alyosha Prokopiev and Nadejda Voinova in May/June 2017 were working on their translations of the Swedish participants of “Poetry without borders” festival: Anna Axfors, Ida Börjel, Naima Chahboun and Ann Jäderlund.

Izabela Morska

Poland

Izabela Morska (earlier known as Izabela Filipiak) is writer , essayist, poet and scholar from Poland. She was born in 1961 and graduated from Gdańsk university where she is teaching now after being habilitated with her dissertation “Glorious Outlaws: Debt As a Tool in Contemporary Postcolonial Fiction” (2016). She lived in emigration from 1986 to 1996 and became the first openly lesbian author in Poland after coming out in 1998. She has published novels “Absolute amnesia” (1995) and “Alma” (2003), short stories collections “Death and spiral” (1992) and “Magic eye” (2006), poetry collection “Madame Intuita” (2002), non-fiction collections “Creative writing for young women” (1999) and “Culture of the offended” (2003) and some other books. In 2018 she was awarded with Julian Tuwim Prize for life achievement

In our residence Izabela Morska in April 2022 was finishing her new novel in which one of the main characters is of Latvian origin.

Maryia Martysevich

Belarus

Maryia Martysevich is a translator and poet from Belarus. She was born in 1982 in Minsk and graduated from the philological department of Belarusian State University. Martysevich has published two collections of her poetry mixed with poetry translations and opinion journalism. Among her numerous translations into Belarusian there are prose works by Arthur Conan Doyle and Bohumil Hrabal, poems of Bolesław Leśmian, Wisława Szymborska, Tom Waits, Veniamin Blazhenny, Serhiy Zhadan and other oeuvres of Polish, Czech, Ukrainian, Russian and American literature. Martysevich is awarded with several national prizes for her translations and journalism.

In our residence Maryia Martysevich in July 2018 was working on her selected poems in Russian translation.

Nasta Mantsevich

Belarus

Nasta Mantsevich is an author from Belarus. She was born in 1983 in Vileyka near Minsk and graduated from the Belarusian State Economic University, also studied psychology, worked as a journalist and took part in LGBT activist projects in Belarus. Mantsevich won the international poetry slam at Makhno-fest (Ukraine, 2008), her first collection of poetry and short prose was piblished in 2012.

In our residence Nasta Mantsevich in July 2018 was working on Belarusian translation of American poet Alok Vaid-Menon.

Martha Kelly

USA

Martha Kelly is a literary scholar from the United States. She was born in 1976, received her Ph.D. from Stanford University and currently teaches Russian literature in University of Missouri. She is the author of “Unorthodox Beauty: Russian Modernism and Its New Religious Aesthetics” (2016) and the co-editor of “Russian Silver Age Poetry: Texts and Contexts” (2015), her studies were dedicated to the works of Aleksandr Blok, Mikhail Kuzmin, Boris Pasternak e.a.

In our residence Martha Kelly in June 2017 worked on her new research project considering Olga Sedakova not only as an outstanding literary heir of teh Silver Age but also as an important example of a Russian poet's Facebook appearance.

Ann Jäderlund

Sweden

Ann Jäderlund was born in 1955 and produced 12 poetry collections since 1985 as well as a play, two books for children and Swedish translations of Emily Dickinson. She was awarded with 11 Swedish literary prizes including influential Bellman prize and Dobloug prize. Our guest for a few days, she assisted Nadezhda Voinova and Alyosha Prokopiev in translating her poetry into Russian.

Amelia Glaser

USA

Amelia Glaser is a philologist from the United States of America. She was born in 1975, received a BA from Oberlin College in Comparative Literature, an MSt. from the University of Oxford in Yiddish, and a Ph.D in Comparative Literature from Stanford University. Since 2006 she teaches in the University of California in San Diego. She is the author of the book-length study “Jews and Ukrainians in Russia’s Literary Borderlands” (2012) and co-edited the collective monograph “Comintern Aesthetics” (2019). Her research and teaching interests include Russian literature and film, transnational Jewish literature, the literatures of Ukraine, the literature of immigration to the US, the Russian critical tradition, and translation theory and practice.

In our residence Amelia Glaser in July 2019 made some preparational work for her planned study of present-day Ukrainian-Russian literary translation.

Anuar Duisenbinov

Kazakhstan

Anuar Duisenbinov is a poet and translator from Kazakhstan. He was born in 1985 in Andreevka (now Kabanbay), grown up in Taldykorgan and graduated from the economic department of the Lev Gumilyov Eurasian National University in Astana as well as from the Open Literary School in Almaty. He has participated in the poetry festivals in Kazakhstan and Latvia, organized a series of mixed musical and literary events in Astana and has his poetry (written in Russian) published through important Russian web magazines TextOnly and Polutona. He has also translated into Kazakh language some poems of Latvian, Polish, Croatian authors.

In our residence Anuar Duisenbinov in June 2016 worked on the anthology of present-day Russian poetry in Kazakh translation.

Kazakh language is almost not represented in the realm of contemporary poetry either by original authors or by translations. I had not had a leg to stand on and missed the pillar of tradition. I stepped in timidly but felt it as a challenge. I heard my native speech as if from the outside, and it happened to sound with a new unprecedented voice. I have realized that I shall continue.