Verses on the Vanguard: Russian Poetry Today

Six of the most remarkable contemporary Russian poets present their groundbreaking verse in a bilingual poetry collection published in partnership with PEN America’s Writers in Dialogue project.

In 2020, as international travel skidded to a halt, PEN America’s Writers in Dialogue project-which opens the exhilarating world of contemporary Russian poetry to American readers by bridging the American and Russian literary communities-went remote, using online connection to foster collaborations between daring emerging or undertranslated poetic voices and dexterous translators.

In this remarkable volume, the Russian poets and American translators who were paired for this initiative present their collaborative work in a bilingual format, along with conversations about the pleasures, challenges, and intimacies of translation. English-reading audiences will have an opportunity to experience the boldness and range, stylistic and thematic, of Russia’s vital poetry scene. Featuring Ainsley Morse, Maria Galina, Catherine Ciepiela, Aleksandra Tsibulia, Anna Halberstadt, Oksana Vasyakina, Elina Alter, Ivan Sokolov, Kevin M.F. Platt, Ekaterina Simonova, Valeriya Yermishova, and Nikita Sungatov.