Dmitry Prigov (1940-2007) was a poet, visual and performance artist, and a leading light in the high-spirited Moscow Conceptualist art scene of the 1980s and ‘90s. His conceptual inventions include a satirical alter-ego, the inspired Soviet poet-genius Dmitry Alexandrovich Prigov, who glorifies the plodding Soviet everyman and heroically fulfills and over-fulfills the state production plan with thousands of mediocre poems. Even as Prigov’s work responded brilliantly to specific historical circumstances, it—and his simultaneously comic yet profound philosophical position—continues today to inspire poets and readers alike.

In addition to the translators, a number of prominent scholars who have written on Prigov’s work will join the conversation by reading and commenting on some of their favorite Prigov poems. Readings in Russian and English, to be followed by Q&A.

This event is in English with poems presented both in Russian and English. It will be held on Zoom on March 3, 2021, at 11.00 am PDT (SF), 2 pm EDT (NY). There will be a limited number of seats; please contact Globus Books via FB messenger to register. We will also be live streaming the event on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/GlobusBooksSF/videos) and later will share the edited version of the program.

Participants:

Simon Schuchat is a poet, translator, and retired American diplomat who worked on U.S.-Russian affairs at the State Department in Washington and in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. His poetry can be found in several rare books, including Svelte (published by Richard Hell when Schuchat was 16), Blue Skies (Some Of Us Press), Light and Shadow (Vehicle Editions), All Shook Up (Fido Productions), and At Baoshan (Coffee House Press), as well as the anthologies None of the Above (edited by Michael Lally) and Up Late (edited by Andrei Codrescu). In 2016, his translation of Chinese poet Hai Zi’s lyric drama Regicide was published in Hong Kong. In 2020, Ugly Duckling Presse published Soviet Texts, his translation of Moscow conceptualist genius poet Dmitri Alexandrovich Prigov.

Ainsley Morse teaches at Dartmouth College and translates Russian and former Yugoslav literatures. Recent publications include Andrei Egunov-Nikolev’s “Soviet pastoral” Beyond Tula (ASP, 2019), and, with Bela Shayevich, Vsevolod Nekrasov’s I Live I See (UDP, 2013) and Kholin 66: Diaries and Poems (UDP, 2017). With Galina Rymbu and Eugene Ostashevsky, she is editor of the anthology F-Letter: New Russian Feminist Poetry (isolarii, 2020).

Matvei Yankelevich is a founding member of the Ugly Duckling Presse editorial collective and has curated UDP's Eastern European Poets Series since 2002. He teaches translation and book arts at Columbia University's School of the Arts. His co-translation (with Eugene Ostashevsky) of Alexander Vvedensky's An Invitation for Me to Think (NYRB Poets), which received a National Translation Award. He has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the National Endowment for Humanities. His most recent book of poetry is Some Worlds for Dr. Vogt (Black Square).

Igor Gulin is a Moscow-based literary critic and writer. He co-edits the journal Nosorog (Rhinoceros) and is a regular columnist for Kommersant, a major newspaper.

Ilya Kukulin is a literary scholar and a cultural historian, the author of Machines of Noisy Time: How Soviet Montage Became an Aesthetic Method of Unofficial Culture, which won the Andrey Bely Prize (2015). In Moscow, he is an Associate Professor at the Department of Cultural Studies of the National Research University, a Senior Researcher at the International Center for the History and Sociology of World War II and Its Consequences, and a Senior Researcher for the School of Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

Mark Lipovetsky is a Professor at the Department of Slavic Languages, Columbia University (New York, USA). He is the author of ten books and editor/co-editor of twenty volumes on 20th- 21st Russian literature and culture. He is mostly known for his works on Russian postmodernism, New Russian drama, the trickster in Soviet culture, and Dmitry Prigov. Lipovetsky is also one of four co-authors of the Oxford History of Russian Literature (2018). Winner of AATSEEL award for the outstanding contribution to scholarship (2014) and Andrei Bely Prize for his input to Russian literature (2019).

Catherine Ciepiela is a scholar and translator of Russian poetry who teaches at Amherst College. She is the author of a book on Marina Tsvetaeva and Boris Pasternak; co-editor, with Honor Moore, of the anthology The Stray Dog Cabaret; and editor of Relocations, a collection of poetry by Polina Barskova, Anna Glazova, and Maria Stepanova. Her translations have appeared in The Nation, The Massachusetts Review, Seneca Review, The Common, Pequod, and elsewhere. A collection of her translations of Polina Barskova's essays, The Forgiver, will soon appear with NYRB.

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. Globus Books features several series of literary and cultural events on its YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/GlobusBooksSF), including Literary Translation Round Table, History/Anthropology, Playtime and Storytime for children, and more.

This program is produced and hosted by Zarina Zabrisky, the author of three short story collections and a novel "We, Monsters" (Numina Press). Zabrisky's work appeared in nine countries in over fifty literary magazines and anthologies, including The Nervous Breakdown, A Capella Zoo, Eleven Eleven, The Rumpus, Guernica, and received nominations and awards. Zabrisky runs literary and cultural programs at Globus Books.