Anatoly Kudryavitsky
Encyclopedia
Anthony Kudryavitsky born in Moscow
on 17 August 1954, better known by his pen name Anatoly Kudryavitsky (Russian
Анатолий Исаевич Кудрявицкий), is a Russian-Irish novelist, poet and literary translator.
who ended up in one of Stalin’s concentration camp
s. His aunt Isabel Kitterick, also a music teacher as well as a musicologist, published a critically acclaimed book titled "Chopin’s Lyrical Diary". Having lived in Russia
and Germany
, Kudryavitsky now lives in South Dublin.
(Jocelyn), William Somerset Maugham (Up at the Villa), Stephen Leacock
(Selected Stories), Arthur Conan Doyle
(Selected Stories), Emily Dickinson
(Selected Poems); Stephen Crane
(Collected Poems); Jim Morrison
(Selected Poems), all in book form.
From 1993 till 1995 he was a member of the meloimaginists poetry group. In the mid-1990s he edited the literary magazines Strelets/The Archer and Inostrannaya Literatura/Foreign Literature, as well as Poetry of Silence (A & B Press, 1998), an anthology of new Russian poetry. Two other anthologies, Zhuzhukiny Deti (NLO Publications, 2000), an anthology of Russian short stories and prose miniatures written in the second half of the twentieth century, and the anthology entitled Imagism (Progress Publishing, 2001) were published more recently. The latter won The Independent/Ex Libris Best Translated Book of the Year Award in 2001. Kudryavitsky is a member of the Russian Writers’ Union and Irish and International PEN
. In 1998 he founded the Russian Poetry Society and became its first President (1998–1999). Joseph Brodsky
described him as "a poet who gives voice to Russian Silence".
Soon after moving to Germany
in 1999, Kudryavitsky was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Federation of Poetry Associations. His five-year term ended in 2004.
Since moving to Ireland
in 2002, Kudryavitsky has written poetry, especially haiku
, predominantly in English, but continues to write fiction in Russian. He also worked as a creative writing tutor giving classes to members of Ireland’s minority language communities. His book of English poems entitled Shadow of Time was published in Ireland in 2005 (Goldsmith Press, Ireland). Irish poet Iggy McGovern mentioned Shadow of Time among the best Irish books of the year (Poetry Ireland Review
Newsletter, January/February 2006). A Night in the Nabokov Hotel, the anthology of contemporary Russian poetry translated into English by Kudryavitsky, was published in 2006 by Dedalus Press. He has also translated more than forty contemporary Irish, English and American poets into Russian, and his own work has been translated into nine languages. He won the Edgeworth Prize for Poetry in 2003, and in 2005 was shortlisted for the Robert Graves Poetry Award.
In 2007, he re-established Okno
, a Russian-language poetry magazine, as a web-only journal after a lapse of some 83 years.
Also in 2008, Kudryavitsky's novel titled "The Case-Book of Inspector Mylls" was published in Moscow by Zakharov Books
. This satirical novel is set in London, and bears the markings of the magic realism
genre. In early 2009, another magic realist work of his, a short novel entitled "A Parade of Mirrors and Reflections", appeared in "Deti Ra", a Russian literary magazine. It is set in Grodno, and deals with the effects of human cloning
. His novella titled "A Journey of a Snail to the Centre of the Shell" appeared in the same "Deti Ra" magazine in July 2010. It is an extended haibun
about the life and writings of a fictitious 19th century Japanese haiku poet.
Kudryavitsky was one of the judges for the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
.
in Ireland. He won the Highly Recommended Prize at the Samhain International Haiku Competition 2005 with this haiku:
In 2006 Kudryavitsky founded the Irish Haiku Society with Siofra O'Donovan and Martin Vaughan. He is the current chairman of the society and editor of Shamrock Haiku Journal.
In 2007, another one of his haiku won Honourable Mention at the Vancouver International Cherry Blossom Festival:
In the same year he was awarded Capoliveri Haiku 2007 Premio Internazionale di Poesia (International Haiku Award, Italy). In 2008, he won the Suruga Baika Haiku Prize of Excellence (Japan) with the following haiku:
He has also translated haiku from several European languages into English.
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
on 17 August 1954, better known by his pen name Anatoly Kudryavitsky (Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
Анатолий Исаевич Кудрявицкий), is a Russian-Irish novelist, poet and literary translator.
Biography
Kudryavitsky's father, Jerzy, was a Polish naval officer who served in the Russian fleet based in the Far East, while his mother Nelly Kitterick, a music teacher, was the daughter of an Irishman from County MayoCounty Mayo
County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...
who ended up in one of Stalin’s concentration camp
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
s. His aunt Isabel Kitterick, also a music teacher as well as a musicologist, published a critically acclaimed book titled "Chopin’s Lyrical Diary". Having lived in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Kudryavitsky now lives in South Dublin.
A Samizdat writer
Educated at Moscow Medical University, Kudryavitsky later studied Irish history and culture. In the 1980s he worked as a researcher in immunology, a journalist, and a literary translator. He started writing poetry in 1978, but under the communists was not permitted to publish his work openly. American poet Leonard Schwartz described him as"a samizdat poet who had to put up with a good deal of abuse during the communist period and who has only been able to publish openly in recent years. In his 'poetics of silence' the words count as much for the silence they make possible as for what they say themselves"
In Russia after 1989
Since 1989 Kudryavitsky has published a number of short stories and seven collections of his Russian poems, the most recent being In the White Flame of Waiting (1994), The Field of Eternal Stories (1996), Graffiti (1998), and Visitors’ Book (2001). He has also published his translations from English into Russian of such authors and poets as John GalsworthyJohn Galsworthy
John Galsworthy OM was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter...
(Jocelyn), William Somerset Maugham (Up at the Villa), Stephen Leacock
Stephen Leacock
Stephen Butler Leacock, FRSC was an English-born Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humorist...
(Selected Stories), Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
(Selected Stories), Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
(Selected Poems); Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane was an American novelist, short story writer, poet and journalist. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism and Impressionism...
(Collected Poems); Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American musician, singer, and poet, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band The Doors...
(Selected Poems), all in book form.
From 1993 till 1995 he was a member of the meloimaginists poetry group. In the mid-1990s he edited the literary magazines Strelets/The Archer and Inostrannaya Literatura/Foreign Literature, as well as Poetry of Silence (A & B Press, 1998), an anthology of new Russian poetry. Two other anthologies, Zhuzhukiny Deti (NLO Publications, 2000), an anthology of Russian short stories and prose miniatures written in the second half of the twentieth century, and the anthology entitled Imagism (Progress Publishing, 2001) were published more recently. The latter won The Independent/Ex Libris Best Translated Book of the Year Award in 2001. Kudryavitsky is a member of the Russian Writers’ Union and Irish and International PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
. In 1998 he founded the Russian Poetry Society and became its first President (1998–1999). Joseph Brodsky
Joseph Brodsky
Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky , was a Russian poet and essayist.In 1964, 23-year-old Brodsky was arrested and charged with the crime of "social parasitism" He was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972 and settled in America with the help of W. H. Auden and other supporters...
described him as "a poet who gives voice to Russian Silence".
In the West
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1999, Kudryavitsky was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Federation of Poetry Associations. His five-year term ended in 2004.
Since moving to Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
in 2002, Kudryavitsky has written poetry, especially haiku
Haiku
' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
, predominantly in English, but continues to write fiction in Russian. He also worked as a creative writing tutor giving classes to members of Ireland’s minority language communities. His book of English poems entitled Shadow of Time was published in Ireland in 2005 (Goldsmith Press, Ireland). Irish poet Iggy McGovern mentioned Shadow of Time among the best Irish books of the year (Poetry Ireland Review
Poetry Ireland Review
Poetry Ireland Review is a journal of Irish poetry published quarterly by Poetry Ireland, the national Irish poetry organization.Poetry Ireland Review publishes the work of both emerging and established Irish and international poets. In line with keeping the journal fresh, vibrant and progressive...
Newsletter, January/February 2006). A Night in the Nabokov Hotel, the anthology of contemporary Russian poetry translated into English by Kudryavitsky, was published in 2006 by Dedalus Press. He has also translated more than forty contemporary Irish, English and American poets into Russian, and his own work has been translated into nine languages. He won the Edgeworth Prize for Poetry in 2003, and in 2005 was shortlisted for the Robert Graves Poetry Award.
In 2007, he re-established Okno
Okno (Russian magazine)
Okno Magazine . One of the Russia's leading literary magazines, it was founded in 1923 in Paris by Mikhail Zetlin, the Russian émigré writer. Three paper-based issues were published in 1923 and in 1924. In 2007 Okno was re-established as a web-only magazine of poetry in Russian...
, a Russian-language poetry magazine, as a web-only journal after a lapse of some 83 years.
Also in 2008, Kudryavitsky's novel titled "The Case-Book of Inspector Mylls" was published in Moscow by Zakharov Books
Zakharov Books
Zakharov Books is one of the main Russian independent publishing houses.Founded by the journalist Igor Zakharov in 1998 as a small independent publishing company, they gradually developed into an important publisher of popular and literary fiction...
. This satirical novel is set in London, and bears the markings of the magic realism
Magic realism
Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of...
genre. In early 2009, another magic realist work of his, a short novel entitled "A Parade of Mirrors and Reflections", appeared in "Deti Ra", a Russian literary magazine. It is set in Grodno, and deals with the effects of human cloning
Human cloning
Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...
. His novella titled "A Journey of a Snail to the Centre of the Shell" appeared in the same "Deti Ra" magazine in July 2010. It is an extended haibun
Haibun
Haibun is a literary composition that combines prose and haiku. The range of haibun is broad and includes, but is not limited to, the following forms of prose: autobiography, biography, diary, essay, history, prose poem, short story and travel literature....
about the life and writings of a fictitious 19th century Japanese haiku poet.
Kudryavitsky was one of the judges for the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is an international literary award for a work of fiction, jointly sponsored by the city of Dublin, Ireland and the company IMPAC. At €100,000 it is one of the richest literary prizes in the world...
.
Haiku involvement
Kudryavitsky started writing haikuHaiku in English
Haiku in English is a development of the Japanese haiku poetic form in the English language.Contemporary haiku are written in many languages, but most poets outside of Japan are concentrated in the English-speaking countries....
in Ireland. He won the Highly Recommended Prize at the Samhain International Haiku Competition 2005 with this haiku:
- summer night –
- blossoming in the pond,
- water-lilies and stars
In 2006 Kudryavitsky founded the Irish Haiku Society with Siofra O'Donovan and Martin Vaughan. He is the current chairman of the society and editor of Shamrock Haiku Journal.
In 2007, another one of his haiku won Honourable Mention at the Vancouver International Cherry Blossom Festival:
- between snowfalls:
- the moon through
- cherry blossom petals
In the same year he was awarded Capoliveri Haiku 2007 Premio Internazionale di Poesia (International Haiku Award, Italy). In 2008, he won the Suruga Baika Haiku Prize of Excellence (Japan) with the following haiku:
- sheep unmoved
- in the green grass...
- a slow passing of clouds
He has also translated haiku from several European languages into English.
Novels
- Истории из жизни сыщика Мыллса (The Case-Book of Inspector Mylls) (Moscow, Zakharov BooksZakharov BooksZakharov Books is one of the main Russian independent publishing houses.Founded by the journalist Igor Zakharov in 1998 as a small independent publishing company, they gradually developed into an important publisher of popular and literary fiction...
, 2008) - Парад зеркал и отражений (A Parade of Mirrors and Reflections) (Moscow, Deti Ra Magazine No 3, 2009)
Novellas and short stories
- Dream. After Dream Novellas (in English translation). Honeycomb Press, Dublin - New York, 2011. ISBN 978-1-4478-6503-2
- Поездка в Где-нас-нет (A Passage to the Unknown). Novellas and Short Stories. Elephant Publishing, New Jersey, USA, 2011 ISBN 978-1-257-68299-7
- Путешествие улитки в центр раковины (A Journey of a Snail to the Centre of the Shell) (Moscow, Deti Ra Magazine No 7, 2010)
- Русский кошмар (Russian Nightmare) (Moscow, Okno Magazine No 7, 2011)
In Russian
- Осенний корабль (The Ship of Autumn) (UDN University Press, Moscow, 1991)
- Запечатаные послания (Sealed Up Messages) (Valentine Books, Moscow, 1992)
- Звезды и звуки (Stars and Sounds) (Lenore Books, Moscow, 1993);
- В белом огне ожиданья (In the White Flame of Waiting) (Sov-VIP Press, Moscow - Oslo, 1994)
- Поле вечных историй (The Field of Eternal Stories) (Third Wave, Moscow/Jersey City, N.J., 1996)
- Граффити (Graffiti) (Third Wave, 1998)
- Книга для посетителей (Visitors’ Book) (Third Wave, 2001)
- Голоса Хроноса (Voices of Chronos. Selected Poems 1990 - 2011) Lynx Press, Dublin, 2011. ISBN 978-1-4478-6279-6
In English
- Shadow of Time (Goldsmith Press, Newbridge, Ireland, 2005) ISBN 1-870-49113-0
- Morning at Mount Ring (Doghouse Books, Tralee, Ireland, 2007) ISBN 978-0-9552003-5-9
- Capering Moons (Doghouse Books, Tralee, Ireland, 2011) ISBN 978-0-9565280-2-5
Anthology editing
- Poetry of Silence (A&B Press, Moscow, 1999)
- Zhuzhukiny Deti. Russian Short Stories in the Second Half of the 20th Century (NLO Books, Moscow, 2000)
- Imagism, an anthology. Edited by Anatoly Kudryavitsky. (Progress Publishing, Moscow, 2001)
- A Night in the Nabokov Hotel. 20 Contemporary Poets from Russia Edited by Anatoly Kudryavitsky. (Dublin, Dedalus Press 2006)
In English
- O'Sullivan, M. Anatoly Kudryavitsky. The Event Guide, Dublin, 19 March - 1 April 2003
- Wilson, Robert D. Morning at Mount Ring by Anatoly Kudryavitsky Simply Haiku: A Quarterly Journal of Japanese Short Form Poetry. Winter 2007, vol 5 no 4
- Prime, Patricia. Morning at Mount Ring by Anatoly Kudryavitsky. Stylus Poetry Journal. Issue 28: January 2008
In French
- Duclos, Michèle. Shadow of Time d'Anatoly Kudryavitsky Poésie/Première No 40 – Mars/Juin 2008
External links
- Kudryavitsky's personal website
- Kudryavitsky's personal website in Russian
- Kudryavitsky's personal website in French
- Kudryavitsky's prose poems in Stride Magazine, England
- Kudryavitsky's prose poems in Shadowtrain magazine, England (translated from the Russian by Siobhán McNamara)
- Kudryavitsky's "A Parade of Mirrors and Reflections" (Russian)
- Kudryavitsky's Russian poems on the "Meloimaginists" site
- Kudryavitsky's poetry reading in Limerick - video