Bios
Ivan Akhmetyev, Mikhail Faynerman, and Alexander Makarov-Krotkov
Ivan Akhmetyev, born in 1950, is the author of five books of poetry. Most of the work here is from Poems and Only Poems: Selected Poems, 1968-1992 (Vesy: Moscow, 1993). More recent poems have appeared in some of the foremost Russian poetry journals, including in Arion, Druzhba Narodov, NLO, and Novii Mir. His extensive contributions as a conservator and presenter include co-editing the poetry section of Samizdat Veka (Century of Samizdat) and the posthumous publications of Jan Satunovsky and Mikhail Sokovnin, among others. Please see his pages at Russkaya Virtualnaya Biblioteka and Vavilon.ru for Russian originals, essays, and Samizdat anthology.
Mikhail Faynerman was born in Moscow in 1946 and died in 2003 after a protracted and difficult illness. In parallel with his interest in Zen Buddhism and its literature, from the early 1970s he began to develop a poetic style unique in Russian, following in the tradition of such American poets as Ezra Pound, W. C. Williams, and Allen Ginsberg. His only published book was The Finch in Flight (Moscow: Geo, 1995).
Alexander Makarov-Krotkov was born in 1959. He began publishing in the samizdat, and in 1989, in such immigrant journals as Continent and Mulleta (Paris). Since then, his poems have appeared in Yunost', Oktyabr', Druzhba Narodov, Arion, Poezia (Moscow), Chernovik (New Jersey), Vitrila (Kiev), and Strelets (Paris), and in such anthologies as Young Poetry '89, Time X (1989), Anthology of Russian Verse Libre (1991), Strophi Veka (1995), Samizdat Veka (1997), and Poetry of Silence (1999). His work has been translated into English (Ireland, United States, Sri Lanka), Croatian, Czech, Chuvash, French, Georgian, German (Germany, Switzerland), Hungarian, Polish, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish (Mexico), and Ukrainian. He is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Furthermore—Everywhere (Moscow: Mosizdatinvest, 2007). The originals of the poems appearing here may be found at Levin.rinet.ru. He blogs on Live Journal.
Alex Cigale
Alex Cigale's poems recently appeared in The Café Review, Colorado Review, Global City Review, Green Mountains Review, The North American Review, Gargoyle, Tar River Poetry, 32 Poems, and Zoland Poetry, and online in Contrary, Drunken Boat, H_ngm_n, and McSweeney's. He has poems forthcoming in Many Mountains Moving, Redactions, and St. Petersburg Review. His other translations can be found in Crossing Centuries: the New Generation in Russian Poetry, The Manhattan Review, The St. Ann's Review, and Yellow Medicine Review, online in Danse Macabre, and forthcoming in OffCourse, Ekleksographia, Sous Rature, Crab Creek Review, and Modern Poetry in Translation. He was born in Chernovsty, Ukraine, lives in New York City, and may be reached at [email protected].
Copyright (c) Ivan Akhmetyev, 1993, 2009.
Copyright (c) Mikhail Faynerman, 1995.
Copyright (c) Alexander Makarov-Krotkov, 1995, 2009.
English translations copyright (c) Alex Cigale, 2009.