Nine of ten people writing poetry in the modern world write it in Russian. Is it a blessing of Russian culture or a national disaster? Is there something in common between Florentine painters of Quattrocento era and Leningrad poets of the second part of XX century when the phenomenon was in its heyday? What is the talked-about otherness between St. Petersburg and Moscow poetry schools? Why a living poet should never be translated? — A brief sketch of these questions is to be interactively discussed and some poetry read by Yuri Kolker.  This event will be held in Russian.
 

Yuri Kolker on himself: “I started writing poetry when I was six. From 1952 to 1984, I wrote poetry in Leningrad, the former USSR. From 1984 to 1990, I wrote poetry in Jerusalem, Israel. From 1990 to 2009, I wrote poetry in Hertfordshire, the United Kingdom. Since 2009, I have been writing prose on how I wrote poetry” (Horizon fortnightly, Denver, Colorado, 2011).

Yuri Kolker published seven collections of his poems and twelve other books including translations of lectures by Lord Acton, the English historian of Victorian period, memoirs ‘I was brought up an Anti-Semite’, sketches on Leningrad underground literature, etc.. He is also an author of well-known essays on Khodasevich, Brodsky, Yevtushenko, Vladimir Lifshits and other poets.

This is a Pushkin Club Event and all are welcome.