Bilingual collection of 32 contemporary Russian poets writing in the tumult of the 1990s.

Russian's political revolution of 1990 set off a cultural earthquake of unprecedented impact. But there were tremors four years before. The whole country saw the cracks starting to appear which eventually resulted in the overthrow of the old system, and the collapse of the confining roofs of direction and repression. This anthology shows how a new generation of Russian poets responded first to that evolving cultural shift and then to the difficult freedoms of a new era. No longer constrained by bureaucracy or ideology, these writers are producing a new literature of great energy and diversity. Working in styles ranging from traditional to avant-garde to postmodern, they depict the cascading changes in Russian life and culture - through the most intimate details of private lives to the larger images of a nation forging a new path for itself. Russian-English bilingual edition. The book includes work by over 30 poets, with facing English versions by some of the most distinguished translators from Britain and America. The poets include Gennady Aygi, Bella Akhmadulina, Mikhail Aizenberg, Tatiana Bek, Dimitry Bobyshev, Bella Dizhur, Arkadii Dragomoshenko, Sergey Gandlevsky, Elena Ignatova, Fazil Iskander, Nina Iskrenko, Bakhyt Kenjeev, Viktor Krivulin, Aleksandr Kushner, Yunna Morits, Vsevolod Nekrasov, Olesia Nikolaeva, Bulat Okudzhava, Olga Popova, Dmitry Aleksandrovich Prigov, Irina Ratushinskaya, Evgeny Rein, Genrikh Sapgir, Olga Sedakova, Tatiana Shcherbina, Elena Shvarts, Viktor Sosnora, Sergey Stratanovsky and Mikhail Yeryomin.

Finalist for the Chicago Review of Books Fiction Award, Dan Chaon's Best of 2017 pick in Publishers Weekly, one of Vol. 1 Brooklyn's Best Books of 2017, a BOMB Magazine "Looking Back on 2017: Literature" Pick, and one of Vulture's 10 Best Thriller Books of 2017. Jac Jemc's The Grip of It is a chilling literary horror novel about a young couple haunted by their newly purchased home Touring their prospective suburban home, Julie and James are stopped by a noise. Deep and vibrating, like throat singing. Ancient, husky, and rasping, but underwater. “That’s just the house settling,” the real estate agent assures them with a smile. He is wrong. The move—prompted by James’s penchant for gambling and his general inability to keep his impulses in check—is quick and seamless; both Julie and James are happy to start afresh. But this house, which sits between a lake and a forest, has its own plans for the unsuspecting couple. As Julie and James try to establish a sense of normalcy, the home and its surrounding terrain become the locus of increasingly strange happenings. The framework— claustrophobic, riddled with hidden rooms within rooms—becomes unrecognizable, decaying before their eyes. Stains are animated on the wall—contracting, expanding—and map themselves onto Julie’s body in the form of painful, grisly bruises. Like the house that torments the troubled married couple living within its walls, The Grip of It oozes with palpable terror and skin-prickling dread. Its architect, Jac Jemc, meticulously traces Julie and James’s unsettling journey through the depths of their new home as they fight to free themselves from its crushing grip.

One of the first Kazakhstani women poets to gain international attention, Tazhi offers incisive and intimate observations in these seemingly spare poems that "pour out a little from an overflowing heart."

Gordy LaSure's passionate about film. He eats film, he drinks film, and sometimes he'll even watch a film. But most of all he loves talking to people about film: whether a comely student with low confidence and a father complex, a Studio 'development' exec who doesn't trust his own judgement, or the countless people Gordy LaSure's encountered in his capacity as the web moderator on an Excessive Sweating Discussion Forum. Gordy LaSure's alwaystalking about films and how they'd be a shit ton better if only people would pull their asses out of their ears and listen to Gordy LaSure.The voyage of this book can be categorised as an attempt to understand How In Hell Film Works. Why are some films bad, and some films terrible?How come just a handful of films (Titanic, Porky's, Dirty Harry) areany good at all? Gordy'll tell you How and Why, and he'll give you a slug of Wherefore on the side. And he doesn't shoot from the hip; he shoots from the gut.

Three of the strongest voices of the "Babylon Generation," named for the Russian journal that began publishing their work

Few of Andrei Sen-Senkov's patients and colleagues know of his status as one of Russia's better-known contemporary poets, but he doesn't lose much sleep over this. Indeed, in person Sen-Senkov exhibits none of the pathos of the Inspired Lyricist. He is just as likely to complain about the weather, bemoan the latest political or natural disaster, or exclaim breathlessly over a newly discovered jazz musician as he is to discuss poetry. And when you read his poems, it all makes sense: for Sen-Senkov, anything can be poetry, everything is poetry. Born in 1968 in Dushanbe (now capital of Tajikistan), Sen-Senkov moved to central Russia following the break-up of the Soviet Union. He moved to Moscow in the beginning of the 2000s and joined the city's lively literary scene, although he works primarily as a gynecologist. His involvement in literary life has been as eclectic and wide-ranging as his choice of subjects: a tireless advocate of artistic innovation, Sen-Senkov participates in events devoted to visual poetry, sound poetry, video poetry, and other multidisciplinary endeavors, as well as traditional poetry readings. Sen-Senkov's poetry comes across easily and well in translation. Some of his imaginative leaps are more obscure than others, but this only increases the pleasure gained from following them. As a poet he is anti-hermetic--he writes to be understood, and he is generous in sharing his observations. Translators and English-language readers alike can delight in the fact that the intuitive logic of his imagination essentially transcends linguistic boundaries.