This is a brief overview of the contents of the second issue of Poetry magazine, aimed primarily at those colleagues who are unable to read it in Russian. We are working on translations of our materials into English and Spanish, but the editorial team’s limited resources do not allow us to ensure simultaneous publication. To mitigate this inconvenience, we have prepared an overview that provides a brief introduction to each text in this issue and its author. The journal is dedicated to independent Russian-language poetry in the context of world literature. Conceived as early as February 2025, Poetry was originally intended to be published not only online but also in print. Unfortunately, following yet another (sudden but predictable) shift in the circumstances surrounding independent literature in Russia, the launch of the print magazine had to be postponed. At the moment, Poetry is available only in digital format.
The second issue of Poetry opens with a section dedicated to contemporary Russian-language poets. It features a selection titled “Nine Poems” (Девять стихотворений) by Alexandra Petrova (b. 1964)—a poet, prose writer, and translator from Italian and English who lives in Rome. Well-known in independent reader circles, Alexandra Petrova’s poetry has been published in the form of several books, and her novel Appendix (Аппендикс; Moscow: Novoye literaturnoye obozreniye, 2016) won the Andrey Bely Prize in the “Prose” category. The poetry section continues with a selection titled “Ten Elegies” (Десять элегий) by Igor Bulatovskiy (b. 1971)—a poet, translator, essayist, and publisher, editor-in-chief of the St. Petersburg-based publishing house Jaromír Hladík Press. “Igor Bulatovskiy, as far as I know, is the only one of his generation who, without renouncing his memory (incredible even against the overall background of his peers) for other people’s poems, without trying to forget ‘all these words’ or drown out all that buzzing in his head with noises, managed to come to terms with his memory,” writes Oleg Yuryev in the preface to Igor Bulatovskiy’s collection Poems on the Time (Стихи на время; Moscow, 2009). Moreover, the second issue features a long poem “Elegy” (Элегия) by Vladimir Koshelev (b. 2000)—a poet and translator, editor of the Collage Media and Volny projects, as well as the PLUS MINUS archive of minimalist poetry, author of the book My Blue Song and Other Songs (My blue song и другие песни; Moscow: SOYAPRESS, 2024). One of the key poets of the so-called “Generation of Flagi” and, later, the newest wave of emigration, Vladimir Koshelev is often mentioned in the context of continuing the tradition of metarealism in contemporary poetry, also associated with the names of Vladimir Aristov, Andrey Tavrov (1948–2023), and others. The contemporary poetry section continues with a selection “From Sketches” by poet and Orthodox priest Sergei Kruglov (b. 1966). Sergei Kruglov is known first and foremost as a poet—the author of the books Filonov’s Day (День Филонова; Moscow: Novoye literaturnoye obozreniye, 2024), The Angel of Unworthiness (Ангел Недостоинства; Moscow: Granat, 2025), and many others. A recipient of the Andrey Bely Prize as early as 2008 and regularly published in Russia, Sergey Kruglov also serves today as the editor of the poetry projects Volny and polutona. Furthermore, the second issue features a selection “Dreams and Miniatures” (Сны и миниатюры) by Veronika Golovanova (b. 2002)—a poet and translator, winner of the Arvo Mets Haiku and Free Miniatures Contest (2023), and a long-list finalist for the “Cicada” Youth Poetry Prize (2021). Following the closure of Flagi magazine, where Veronika’s poems could be read, this is one of the few of her works that the reader will find online. Next is a selection “Five Poems” (Пять стихотворений) by Mikhail Gronas (b. 1970). The author of just two poetry books—published 17 years apart and both recipients of major awards (the Andrei Bely Prize in 2002 and the “Moskovskiy schët” Prize in 2020)—Mikhail Gronas remains one of the most frequently cited authors of the uncensored literary circles; he currently lives and teaches in the United States. The poetry section concludes with the selection “Indirect Native Speech” (Несобственно-родная речь) by Danya Danilchenko (b. 2002)—a poet, artist, and curator of literary projects from St. Petersburg who lives in Moscow. 2026 saw the publication of his debut poetry collection—Moscow Hide-and-Seek (Московские прятки; Moscow: Zhurnal na kolenke).
The essays and criticism section opens with an essay by Dmitriy Garichev (b. 1987)—a poet and prose writer from Noginsk—about the poet and priest Sergey Kruglov, whose verses are published in the poetry section. The essay “In the Same Snow” (В одном снегу) does not focus on the isolation and insularity of local poetry, but highlights it as a point of equal proximity to the scene of active poetic life and the world culture of the past. The section continues with an article by poet and literary historian Valery Shubinsky (b. 1965), “Too Much of a Human: On Adelina Adalis” (Слишком человек: об Аделине Адалис), which examines the figure of little-known, compared to her more famous contemporaries, poetess Adelina Adalis (1900–1969)—a witness to the most striking events of the Silver Age within the circle of the Symbolist Valeriy Bryusov, who, like him, remained in her homeland after the revolution, away from the repressions. Furthermore, this section features an essay by poet, critic, and translator Denis Beznosov (b. 1988) titled “Fragments on Bobrov,” dedicated to the poetry of Semën Bobrov (1763–1810)—one of the most enigmatic figures of 18th-century Russian Baroque poetry (a period typically defined by the most imposing figure of the “Derzhavin century”)—who has since been all but forgotten and has only been republished in our time (The Ancient Night of the Universe, or The Wandering Blind Man (Древняя ночь вселенной, или Странствующий слепец); Moscow: BSG-Press, 2023). This section also features an article by writer and editor Katya Morozova titled “All ***** Before *****” (Все ***** перед *****) on the poetry of Giorgio Baffo (1694–1786)—among other things, this text constitutes an important commentary by Morozova, as a scholar of Venetian culture, on a new book of selected erotic poetry by Giorgio Baffo, translated from the Venetian by Shlomo Krol and Irina Tessaro, which was published by Jaromír Hladík Press in 2026. Next is an essay by poet and prose writer Anna Vogel (b. 1998) named “In the Depths of the Rubble” (На глубине обломков), dedicated to the works of Ivan V. Lalić (1931–1996)—one of the most significant Serbian poets of the 20th century, a selection of whose poems, previously unknown in Russian, is published in the translations section. The poet explores two lines from different translations of Ivan V. Lalić as kinds of monads capable of encapsulating the author’s entire poetics. The section concludes with an essay by writer and member of the Second Russian Avant-Garde Irina Vrubel-Golubkina (b. 1943) on the magazine “Zerkalo” (Mirror), which is published in Tel Aviv and online under her direction. As one of the few publications of the Russian diaspora that has been in operation from the early 1990s to the present day, Zerkalo places equal emphasis on working with the forgotten names of the past and on engaging in dialogue with new generations of Russophone authors around the world.
In its second issue, Poetry magazine introduces several new regular features. One of them is the “Pro et Contra” section. For this feature, we invite contemporary poets and cultural figures to engage in a discussion centered on fleeting yet inevitably relevant phenomena and figures in the current poetic life. In the second issue, poets and literary project editors Dmitry Kuzmin (b. 1968) and Maksim Drëmov (b. 1999) debate and reflect on so-called “Weird poetry,” which has been regularly mentioned in recent publications as a distinct poetic phenomenon of our time. Maksim Drëmov argues in favor of the relevance and validity of this term on the “pro” side, while the “contra” side is represented by Dmitry Kuzmin.
Another new regular feature in Poetry magazine is “Point on the Map.” This section is dedicated to Russophone poets from various regions of the world. In the new issue, you’ll find works by authors from Nizhny Novgorod (Russia), starting with “Three Poems” by Pëtr Likin (b. 1990), whose second poetry collection, Cartoons (Мультфильмы), was published in Moscow in 2025: as Marusya Sechina writes, his “subject does not project deep sorrow onto physical reality, but equalizes with it.” The poetry selection is followed by an article by a candidate of philological sciences, researcher and poet Veronika Demenyuk (b. 1995) on the poetry of Pëtr Likin, which offers “two ways of reading” his poems. In addition, the section is rounded out by an essay on Nizhny Novgorod poetry titled “lord aren’t you” (господи разве не ты) by Artëm Feigelman (b. 1986)—a poet, cultural studies scholar, and cultural activist who lives and teaches in Nizhny Novgorod and is one of the most important organizers of the region’s poetry life.
The “Interview” section features a conversation by Vladimir Koshelev with Belarusian poet and artist Adam Hlobus (b. 1958)—“The Freeze-Frame Effect.” The central theme of the conversation was the haiku genre, for which Adam Hlobus is best known; his work has been translated into many languages around the world, including Japanese—Adam Hlobus’s haiku have been recognized in national journals and anthologies dedicated to the genre. The poets’ conversation precedes a publication in the “Translations” section, which features translations by Vladimir Koshelev of 20th- and 21st-century Belarusian haiku poets: Maksim Tank (1912–1995), Miraslav Šajbak (b. 1965), Viktar Šnip (b. 1960), Hanna Kislicyna (b. 1967), and Andrej Antonaŭ (b. 1974). As the translator notes, the selection includes “landscape miniatures, scenes from everyday life, and ironic yet precise—a quality underscored by their brevity—poems,” though it does not exhaust the full diversity of haiku in Belarusian poetry.
Furthermore, the section on translated poetry features a selection of poems by Ivan V. Lalić (1931–1996), translated from Serbian by Anna Rostokina (b. 1986)—a poet and translator living in Požega (Serbia). It is through her translations that Russophone readers have come to know a significant portion of contemporary Serbian poetry, as well as the poems of Milorad Pavić (1929–2009), which were first published in Russian in 2025, and some texts by Miloš Crnjanski (1893–1977) from the book “The Lyrics of Ithaca” (Лирика Итаке) published at the same time. Currently, the Russian edition of Ivan V. Lalić's book of poems “The Passionate Measure” (Страсна мера) translated by Anna Rostokina, is being prepared for publication by Nosorog publishing house. The translations section is continued with a selection of early poems by the American avant-garde poet William Carlos Williams (1883–1963), translated from English by Dmitry Kuzmin. As the translator writes in the preface to the selection, “I fear that the Russian cultural public’s impression of Williams has been shaped by Jarmusch’s film Paterson. This is probably because the simplicity of Williams’s mature poetry had no parallel in the Russian reading experience until much later times.” Next in this section is a selection of poems by Vittorio Sereni (1913–1983) from the books “The Border” (Frontiera) and “Algerian Diary” (Diario d’Algeria), translated by Pëtr Epifanov (b. 1963), who is known for his work on 20th-century Italian poetry. For example, in 2026 a landmark collection of poems by Giuseppe Ungaretti, “The Joy of Shipwrecks” (Allegria di naufragi; translated as Веселье крушений; Moscow: Nosorog), was published in Russia in a translation by Pëtr Epifanov; excerpts from this collection were also published in the first issue of Poetry. A selection of translations from Vittorio Sereni continues the theme of war poetry and includes poems from the 1930s and 1940s, accompanied by commentary by Pëtr Epifanov. Spanish poetry from the mid-1920s is represented by Denis Beznosov’s translations from the book “The Wind Rose” by José María Inojosa (1904–1936)—a poet, one of the first Spanish surrealists, member of the famous “Generation of 27” (Generación del 27), who received less recognition than other figures of this circle (Lorca, Alberti, Aleixandre, Cernuda, and others). The book “The Wind Rose” (La Rosa de los Vientos, 1927) was Inojosa’s third and stylistically most mature collection of poems, and the selection is accompanied by a translator’s commentary. In addition, the magazine includes poems from three books by the Danish poet Peter Nielsen (1948–2025), translated by Arseniy Rovinskiy (b. 1968)—a poet and translator and a finalist for the “Moskovskiy schët” Prize (2014, 2017) who lives in Copenhagen. In 2022, Rovinskiy’s book of poetry “Seva's Not a Zombie” (Сева не зомби; Moscow: POETICA) was published, and in 2021, his poetry collection “27 Fictional Poets in the Author’s Translations” (27 вымышленных поэтов в переводах автора; Moscow–Yekaterinburg: Kabinetny uchëny). The section continues with a selection of poems by the Martinican poet Aimé Césaire (1913–2008), translated from French by Pëtr Kochetkov (b. 2000). Influenced in the early 1930s by the Parisian Surrealists in André Breton’s circle, Aimé Césaire spent most of his life in Fort-de-France, where he became mayor in 1945. One of the most important anti-colonial authors, Aimé Césaire ranks among the founders of Négritude, a movement embodied in his key poetic works and essays. The translations section concludes with a transcript of the presentation of a book of poems by Forugh Farrokhzad (1934–1967) “Another Birth” (Tavallodī dīgar; translated as Второе рождение), translated from Persian by Anna Direkdzhi—Ph.D., Candidate of Cultural Studies, and Associate Professor in the Department of Indo-Iranian and African Languages at MGIMO. The event was also joined by Elena Gladkova, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor, and Head of the Department of Indo-Iranian and African Languages, and Khalimakhon Khushkadamova, Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Associate Professor, and Professor in the Department of Indo-Iranian and African Languages; the meeting was moderated by Evgeny Thabisimov. They presented a book published by Des Esseintes Press (the publishing house of Moscow International University) which for the first time introduces Russian-speaking readers to the work of Forugh Farrokhzad—Iran’s first female film director and a key figure in Iranian “new poetry”—in a standalone edition.
The “In Another Language” section in the second issue is dedicated to the magazine Círculo de Poesía—a weekly Spanish-language publication based in Puebla, Mexico, which also oversees book series featuring authors significant to contemporary Pan-Hispanic poetry. Indira Díaz, editor of the Russian-language poetry section at Círculo de Poesía, spoke to Poetry magazine about the editorial team’s work, the project’s key features, and its guiding principles; her essay opens this feature. The publication also includes poems by six Círculo de Poesía authors: Ali Calderón, Luis García Montero, Piedad Bonnett, Mario Bojorquez, Rosabetti Muñoz, and Raúl Surita, translated by Denis Beznosov, Natalia Meteleva, Anna Orlitskaya, Anna Vogel, and Liv Alekseeva.
Furthermore, we continue our discussion of significant poetry periodicals of the present and the past. The focus of the second issue is the Vavilon (Вавилон, Babylon) project which at various times served as a magazine, a web almanac, and, finally, one of the most important online archives of contemporary poetry; its editorial team officially ceased operations under that name in 2004, but in reality did not stop updating the website until the early 2020s—yet even at this stage, few dare to speak of a definitive and irreversible end to the project. Nevertheless, in an interview with the founder of “Vavilon,” the poet Dmitry Kuzmin, and one of its editors, the poet Danila Davydov, Liv Alekseeva discussed the almanac’s past: its origins in circles of young independent authors, as well as its development and transformation into other publishing and magazine projects. The section also features an essay “Vavilon: The Archaeology of Falling Asleep” by Danya Danilchenko—one of Moscow’s most prominent authors and organizers of young poetry, who also serves as editor of the new poetry project Volny, which focuses on experimental writing and debut publications.
A survey in the second issue of the Poetry magazine complements the section dedicated to the Vavilon project. In this publication, young Russophone poets answer questions about their first encounter with the periodical, the role of the almanac in today’s poetic life, and the influence the project had on their personal perception of the cultural process, even though it had already been discontinued by the time they entered the literary scene. The survey features responses from Lyubov Barkova, Veronika Golovanova,
The “Archive” section opens with an excerpt from “The Ginger Bird” (Рыжая птица) by Anna-Ry Nikonova-Tarshis (1942–2014)—a book that originated in the “Diaries of Books Read” (Дневники прочитанных книг, shortened as ДПК), the poet’s reading journal, which gradually evolved into a standalone poetry book. The text is accompanied by a commentary by literary scholar, researcher, and translator Evgenia Ovchinnikova (b. 2002) which examines in detail the realities and context surrounding the creation of “DBR”, as well as the logic behind its transformation into a separate work. In addition, this section features the fourth volume of Nina Iskrenko’s (1951–1995) typewritten collection of poems, compiled by the author herself—“Above the Cash Register of Voices” (Над кассой голосов). Presumably, the collection includes poems from 1982–1984, among them both well-known poems already familiar to readers (such as “It’s Summer in Stoleshnikov” (В Столешникове лето)) and previously unpublished texts. The archives section concludes with the previously unpublished short story “Inhabitation” (Вселение) by Oleg Yuryev (1959–2018)—a poet, playwright, translator, and essayist. The text dates from 1983 and belongs to the writer’s pre-emigration creative period, as well as to the time of the formation of the uncensored literary project Kamera khraneniya, of which Yuryev was the founder.
The “Publishers and Projects” section features the New Moscow Samizdat: the SHALASH friending house and the sam//izdat project. In their essays, the founders and leading figures of these two Moscow-based independent publishing houses — which began as friendly gatherings over paper and scissors in the lobby of the Stanislavsky Electrotheater — Rostislav Rusakov and
The issue concludes with a section featuring reviews of new poetry releases by the Poetry’s regular reviewers. It features an article by Anna Vogel titled “Disembodiment Through Similarity,” which includes reviews of the books “A Mirror for the Corpse of Autumn” by Adonis, translated from Arabic by Kirill Korchagin (translated as Зеркало для тела осени; Moscow: Eksmo, 2024), “The Hurting Kind” by Ada Limón, translated from English by Shasha Martynova (translated as Порода ранимых; Moscow: Eksmo, 2024), and “The Power of Exceptions” by Nina Stavrogina (Власть исключений; Moscow: SOYAPRESS, 2024). In addition, the section features an article by