A Magic Mirror. An Evening of Poetry with Julia Nemirovskaya

Join us for an inspiring evening with Julia Nemirovskaya, the renowned Moscow-born poet and editor of two bilingual anthologies of protest poetry centered on Russia’s war in Ukraine: Disbelief (Smokestack Books 2022) and Dislocation (Slavica 2024).

Julia teaches and directs student theater at the University of Oregon (UO). She will be visiting us to read poetry, talk about her work, her life and poetry, the New Wave poets, and the wartime poetry she publishes - and answer questions from the audience.

Boris Dralyuk, a distinguished writer, editor and translator, about Julia Nemirovskaya’s poetry.

“The moment I first encountered the poems of Julia Nemirovskaya, I felt I had acquired a magical mirror – a mirror that promised to reveal with striking clarity, traits of my own personality that I had barely glimpsed before. I saw a version of myself in her lyrics and heard a version of my voice; but the self was brighter and better, the voice gentler yet surer than the one I was used to. After a decade of living with Julia’s poems, I have come to appreciate the degree to which the process of translating them has helped me become that better self and find that surer voice… I hope my translations will do the same for other readers.”

When: Friday 21 February 2025 19:00-21:00 (doors at 18:30)

Where: Main Lecture Theatre, Trinity Hall, Trinity Lane, Cambridge CB2 1TJ

Language: English with some poetry read in original Russian

Format: in person and online via Zoom

Tickets in-person: £8 standard / £5 CamRuSS members & concessions;

Zoom: £5 standard, free for CamRuSS members & students.

Access to video recording: free for CamRuSS members, £5 for others, including students.

Julia Nemirovskaya is a poet, prose writer, and literary scholar. She graduated from Moscow State University where she defended her Ph.D. dissertation in 1991. Before emigrating to the United States that same year, she was a member of the renowned Kirill Kovaldzhi “New Wave Poets” seminar and the Moscow Poetry Club.

She has published four collections of poetry and short stories, a novel, and a book on Russian cultural history Inside the Russian Soul: A Historical Survey of Russian Cultural Patterns (McGraw-Hill 1997 2001). Her work has appeared in Asymptote, GLAS, Literary Review, Znamya, LRS-Lettres Russes, Bonniers Litterära Magasin and other publications. Her writings have been translated into several European languages. Additionally, her 26 plays have been staged in theatres across Russia, the United States, Germany, and France.

A mother of three, she resides in the United States, frequently travels to her youngest child’s native Ethiopia, and teaches Russian literature while directing student theatre productions at the University of Oregon.

Books

• Inside the Russian Soul: A Historical Survey of Russian Cultural Patterns. New York: McGraw- Hill, 1997; 2nd Revised Edition, 2001. 
• Moia knizhechka. A Collection of Verses. A & B Publishers, Moscow, 1998. 
• Vtoraia knizhechka. A Collection of Verses. Vodolei Publishers, Moscow, 2014. 
• Lis. A Novel. Vodolei Publishers, Moscow, 2017. 
• Slyshnee. Complete Works Poetry. Vodolei Publishers, Moscow, 2021. 
• Tela Net. Complete Prose Works. Vodolei Publishers, Moscow, 2021. 
• Disbelief: 100 Anti-War Poets Ed. by Julia Nemirovskaya. Smokestack Books, London, 2022. 
• Dislocation: An Anthology of Poetic Response to Russia’s War in Ukraine Ed. by Julia Nemirovskaya and Anna Krushelnitskaya. Slavica Publishers, Indiana University, 2024.

Host or Publisher The Cambridge Russian-Speaking Society (CamRuSS)