Queer Russophone Poetry: Readings, Translations, and Contexts

This exceptional three-part panel opens Globus Books Literary Translation Series at Globus Books YouTube Channel.

We present three sets of authors and translators:

Ilya Danishevsky – Alex Karsavin

Lida Yusupova – Hilah Kohen

Oksana Vasyakina – Ainsely Morse

Translators discuss a few of the challenges of translating their authors.

Part II: Spotlight on Translation.

Translators discuss a few of the challenges of translating their author. Danishevsky will say a few words about his experience of the (im)(p)act of translation as the translatee.

Part III: The Social Context

Panelists will discuss some current trends and issues manifesting in queer Russophone poetry today.

Bios:

Ilya Danishevsky is one of the best-known (and youngest) literary editors in Russia. Formerly in charge of the alternative publishing project Anhedonia at the leading publishing house AST, Danishevsky writes texts that blur the boundary between poetry and prose, produces regular literary features for the online edition of the journal Snob, and curates the literary program at Moscow’s Voznesensky Center. His latest book, Mannelig in Chains (2018), has been translated into Ukrainian and German.

Alex Karsavin is a translator and writer based in Chicago & New York. They are the translations & poetry editor at H​​omintern m​agazine​, and occasionally the ​​Zahir Review​.​ Their writing and translations have appeared in ​​The New Inquiry, Homintern​ and are forthcoming in the ​Columbia Journal. ​In their academic and literary work they explore the channelways in between queer poetics, Marxism, and environmental history. They are currently working on their debut collection of poems.

Hilah Kohen is the News Editor of Meduza in English (meduza.io/en), the Anglophone edition of a Russian-language news outlet. Kohen’s work on the intersections of Russophone literature and politics can also be found in Music & Literature, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. Her translations of poetry by Lida Yusupova are forthcoming in Nashville Review and a volume published by Cicada Press.

Ainsley Morse teaches at Dartmouth College and translates Russian and former Yugoslav literatures. Recent publications include Permanent Evolution, a collection of theoretical essays by the Formalist critic Yuri Tynianov (ASP; edited and translated with Philip Redko), Andrei Egunov-Nikolev’s “Soviet pastoral” Beyond Tula (ASP), and, with Bela Shayevich, Kholin 66: Diaries and Poems by Igor Kholin (UDP) and Vsevolod Nekrasov’s I Live I See (UDP 2013).

In 2019 Anne O. Fisher’s translations included “Monitor-1” by Shura Burtin (winner of the inaugural True Story Award for long-form journalism); “Nervous,” a one-act play by Julia Lukshina (Asymptote); and poetry and prose by Ilya Danishevsky and Dmitry Kuzmin in the folio Fisher co-edited, Life Stories, Death Sentences: Contemporary Russian-Language LGBTQ+ Writing (In Translation). Fisher teaches remotely for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Translation and Interpreting Studies program and is the Vice-President of ALTA (the American Literary Translators Association).

Globus Books is an independent bookstore serving San Francisco since 1971. It offers a wide-ranging stock of books on all things Russia. Globus is actively working with the libraries across the states on completing their holdings for Russian publications, both contemporary and out-of-print. The Globus Books team is well-known for its expertise in first editions of Russian literature, books on the Russian avant-garde, early imprints and travel and voyage books. Under the new management, Globus strives to serve the Bay Area, bridging gaps, continuing cultural traditions and giving voice to unrepresented communities in Russia and the US.

In the future, these events will be held at Globus Books store in San Francisco. For now, we are honored to feature these authors and translators via a Zoom event. Please message us if you want to participate in the Zoom event. Dut to the format and setting, we will have a limited amount of guests. The panel will be recorded and shared on our YouTube channel.