ULYANOVSK
Poet Danila Nozdryakov, Ulyanovsk UNESCO City of Literature, Russia
ABOUT THE BOOK
The poetry book Поволжская детская республика [The Volga Children’s Republic] published in 2020 in the well-known Russian publishing house, Voymega. Danila Nozdtakov about his book:
«I spent my childhood in the ‘90s in the provincial capital on the bank of the Volga river. It was a challenging and exciting time. The changing of social conditions shook everything up. Most people only thought about surviving in a brave new capitalist world. Many children were abandoned to their fate. They lived in their own world. Strange kids found it hard to adapt to this world. I was one of them. And Volga Children’s Republic is about the world in Ulyanovsk. That’s the name of the city where I grew up. That’s the place of the Volga Children’s Republic. That’s the time of our childhood.»
Russian poet Dmitry Grigoriev about the book:
“There is no doubt about the reality of The Volga Children's Republic, where the time machine created by Danila Nozdryakov brings it. The author doesn't give out comfortable protective space suits, and you get out of this car into a cruel and unpredictable world, something very similar to the one that you left ten, twenty, fifty years ago. Nettle also burns, bruised lips bleed, love and hate makes you breathless"
From The Volga Children’s Republic
If you watch the clock often
it will break
the figures go out on the dial
the hands stop
get out like guts
guy ran down the streets
tumbled and fell
a string of sausages
dropped from his torn stomach
he put it all back
looked around
he got up and ran on
here his pool of blood
people break like the clock
i saw him last summer
it’s very cold winter
how long to wait for the bus?
could we hitch a ride?
i want to go home
what time is it now?
***
the bumps in the road
the car is shaking like
kitten after her first bath
soldier before his first attack
you know these potholes
are peeling paint on the windowsill
the cracks
the cracks in the highway
i’ve made it
my mum don’t need to know it
it’s not allowed to step on the zebra crossing’s stripes
it’s not allowed to step on the zebra crossing’s stripes
it’s not allowed to step on the zebra crossing’s stripes
it’s not allowed to step on the zebra crossing’s stripes
the white stripes in the polbin crossroad
are so thick that they can flick you into the air
where you fight with the shredder’s terracotta army
i’m stronger then all of them
but my granny won’t let me go so far
when the terrorists keep our school
i run alone in a dirty bloody shirt
through the empty corridors
through the ventilation system
just to stop the war
the greatest single loss
i can’t play like
when i was a child
ABOUTH THE AUTHOR
Danila Nozdryakov is a Russian poet and prose writer. He was born in 1986 in Ulyanovsk, now lives in Ulyanovsk. He graduated from Ulyanovsk State University and studied to be a historian. Danila orked as a professor of philosophy and history at Ulyanovsk State Technical University and now works as a journalist. From 2016n the poet started being published in Russian literary magazines, including the website «Polutona», in the magazines Translit, Simbirsk, Literratura, Textura.club. He appeared at literary festivals in Cheboksary («Golos-A»), Togliatti, Saratov («Center of Spring»).The author’s poems were longlisted in the literature contest «Lyceum» named after Alexander Pushkin (2018, 2020) and shortlisted in the literature contest Lift (2020).
He is the winner of the International Literary contest «Vers Libre» (2018) and prizewinner of the International Voloshinskiy contest (2019); participant of the International Forum of young writers in Ulyanovsk and the Seminar of the Moscow Writers Union (both in 2019). His debut poetry collection named Поволжская детская республика [The Volga Children’s Republic] was published in 2020 in the well-known Russian publishing house, Voymega. He has written and published two storybooks via the internet. These are Олень двугорбый [The Two Humped Deer] (2016) and Люди с пониженным социальным отверстием [People with reduced social status] (2019).
Gala Uzryutova, Ulyanovsk UNESCO City of Literature, Russia
ABOUT THE BOOK
With this book Обернулся, а там–лес [Turned around, and there was a forest] (Russian Gulliver Publishing House, Moscow, 2015), Gala Uzryutova became the laureate of the special poetic award «Russian Gulliver-2014» and the laureate of the Blagov poetry award (2016).
The poetry book Turned around, and there was a forest–a collection of poems, many of which are dedicated to the Volga River and the Ulyanovsk region and are closely related to the local topography and landscape mentality.
From a review of Russian literary critic Emil Sokolsky: «The author's speech is surprisingly liberated-which, I think, comes from the peculiarities of the folk dialects (Uzryutova lives in Ulyanovsk, that is in the Simbirsk province). Gala Uzryutova's poems are driven by the pre-verbal space (...) They seem to have grown out of nature, they are completely free from the task of "language exercises"; her poems are the sounds that the author picks up like an antenna and which line up in words as if choosing the clothes they need.
And the words, in turn, line up in a free verse size. Moreover, the tempo, rhythm, sound power, and poem breathing frequency change-as if corresponding to the speed of human movement, the acoustic reaction to leafy noise, the splash of the stream, the voices of people, birds, animals, and insects.
The beginning of each poem is a sound that connects with another sound, the third, the fourth into something meaningless-musical [...]».
Russian poet and editor Vadim Mesyats, from the book preface: «Song, imploration, prayer. Not stylization, not imitation, but exactly the re-creation of the genre from today's material. [...] Intonation is the keyword for understanding the poetics of Gala Uzryutova. The figurative structure of the poems of Uzryutova is not speculative, but physiological».
Goncharov's house in Ulyanovsk
From Turned around, and there was a forest translated by Canadian poet Stuart Ross and the author
Vast emptiness is what you touch
when your train rolls into the city’s outskirts
—you see the coaches, but not the sunny square
how long the donkeys’ hoofprints are.
If you walk in a circle,
you can stomp along the shore around the water
and cross it to another water.
All the names are occupied, but one is vacant,
all the names are unpacked and empty.
You chose the one that people call out most often,
everyone liked it,
but no one wanted to call themselves that.
All the names are occupied, but one is vacant
No one with your name has ever entered the city,
but every day the trains are met
by those who chose their own names
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gala Uzryutova is a Russian poet, prose writer, and playwright. She is also the author of photo projects, interdisciplinary art projects, the author of the concept that considers poetry as an animal instinct, an active participant in international literary projects and writers' residencies. Texts were translated into German, English, Slovenian, Latvian, Italian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Chinese. The author also actively explores the theme of landscape mentality in poetry and texts.
Literary awards and cultural scholarships: winner of the Moscow Modern Art Museum "Garage" contest on self-isolation (2020), Laureate of the Russian-Italian literary prose award "Rainbow" (Verona, Italy, 2019), Scholar of the Goethe-Institut "Culture on the Move" Programme (2019), Laureate of the European Theater Translation Network drama contest Eurodram (2018), Laureate of the Prose literary award Bookscriptor 2018, Diplomat of the literary award named after Dmitry Gorchev (2017), Laureate of the International drama contest «Badenweiler 2016», Laureate of the Blagov poetry award (2016).
She is a member of the Moscow Writers' Union. Website: https://www.galauzryutova.com/ She was born in 1983, in Ulyanovsk, Russia, and graduated from Ulyanovsk State University, Faculty of Culture and Art. Gala now lives in Ulyanovsk UNESCO City of Literature, Russia.
The Anthology Ulyanovsk literature: the beginning of the XXI century (Ulyanovsk: Corporation of Promotion Technologies, 2015). The book brings together poetry and prose of more than 150 Ulyanovsk poets, writers and authors associated with the city.
Please note that the Poetry Cities 2021 entries were written prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.