Genrikh Sapgir (russian: Ге́нрих Вениами́нович Сапги́р; November 20, 1928,
Biysk
Biysk ( rus, Бийск, p=bʲijsk) is a city in Altai Krai, Russia, located on the Biya River not far from its confluence with the Katun River. It is the second largest city of the krai (after Barnaul, the administrative center of the krai). Pop ...
,
Altai Krai
Altai Krai (russian: Алта́йский край, r=Altaysky kray, p=ɐlˈtajskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (a krai). It borders clockwise from the west, Kazakhstan (East Kazakhstan Region and Pavlodar ...
, Russia – October 7, 1999,
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
) was a Russian poet and fiction writer of
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
descent.
Biography
He was born in Biysk to a family of a
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
engineer on a business trip. The family returned to Moscow fairly soon. In 1944 he joined the course of creative writing tutored by the artist and writer . Together with some other of Kropivnitsky's students he later formed the so-called of poets and writers, part of the
Soviet Nonconformist Art
The term Soviet Nonconformist Art refers to Soviet art produced in the former Soviet Union from 1953 to 1986 (after the death of Joseph Stalin until the advent of Perestroika and Glasnost) outside of the rubric of Socialist Realism. Other terms u ...
movement. Since 1959 Sapgir published his poetry for children. His other poems appeared only in émigré magazines, such as ''Continent'' and ''Strelets'' (''The Archer'').
According to
Anatoly Kudryavitsky
Anatoly Kudryavitsky (Russian: Анатолий Исаевич Кудрявицкий; born 17 August 1954) is a Russian-Irish novelist, poet, editor and literary translator.
Biography
Kudryavitsky's father, Jerzy, was a Ukrainian-born Polish n ...
,
"Genrikh Sapgir is the most prominent figure of the writers that came to be associated with the now well-known 'Lianozovo Group', which also included (1934-2009) and Igor Kholin (1920-1999). These Moscow poets sought out new models and positions and exploited the possibilities of inserting common speech directly in their texts. Each of them had a Dostoyevskian eye for everyday Russian life, which made their work immediately accessible."
During the perestroika period
Since 1989 his poetry, short stories, plays and novels have been widely published in Russia. Three volumes of his Collected Poems appeared at the end of the 1990s. He represented Russia at numerous international festivals of poetry, his work has been published in translation throughout the world. There are English translations by
Jim Kates,
Anatoly Kudryavitsky
Anatoly Kudryavitsky (Russian: Анатолий Исаевич Кудрявицкий; born 17 August 1954) is a Russian-Irish novelist, poet, editor and literary translator.
Biography
Kudryavitsky's father, Jerzy, was a Ukrainian-born Polish n ...
and Artyom Kotenko & Anthony Weir.
Andrew Bromfield
Andrew Bromfield is a British editor and translator of Russian works. He is a founding editor of the Russian literature journal ''Glas'', and has translated into English works by Boris Akunin, Vladimir Voinovich, Irina Denezhkina, Victor Pelevin, ...
published his translations of Sapgir's 'Very Short Stories'. Sapgir was the recipient of various awards including the
Pushkin Prize
The Pushkin Prize (russian: Пушкинская премия) was established in 1881 by the Russian Academy of Sciences to honor one of the greatest Russian poets Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837). The prize was awarded to the Russian who achieve ...
for poetry.
In 1999 he died of a heart attack in a Moscow trolley-bus on his way to the launch of the anthology of contemporary Russian poetry entitled "Poetry of Silence".
In Sapgir's biography published in 2004, David Shrayer-Petrov called him an "
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
classic".
[Shrayer, M., Shrayer-Petrov, D. Генрих Сапгир: Классик авангарда. enrikh Sapgir: An avant-garde classic Dmitri Bulanin Publishing, St Petersburg, 2004]
Books in English translation
* ''Psalms''. Translated by Jim Kates. Cold Hub Press, 2012.
References
Further reading
* Smith, A. 'Genrikh Sapgir: Klassik avangarda.'
The Slavonic and East European Review
''The Slavonic and East European Review'', the journal of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (University College London), is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering Slavonic and East European Studies. It was establ ...
, Volume 83, Number 4, 1 October 2005, pp. 746–747(2)
* Kudryavitsky, A. A Night in the Nabokov Hotel: 20 Contemporary Poets from Russia, Introduction, pp. 1–2.
External links
Official website
translated by
Andrew Bromfield
Andrew Bromfield is a British editor and translator of Russian works. He is a founding editor of the Russian literature journal ''Glas'', and has translated into English works by Boris Akunin, Vladimir Voinovich, Irina Denezhkina, Victor Pelevin, ...
Eight poems in Englishtranslated by Artyom Kotenko and
Anthony Weir
Five poems in Englishtranslated by Anatoly Kudryavitsky
translated by
Roman Turovsky
Roman Turovsky-Savchuk (Ukrainian: Роман Туровський-Савчук) is an American artist-painter, photographer and videoinstallation artist, as well as a lutenist-composer,
Ivan Karamazov's interview with Anatoly Kudryavitsky about Sapgir
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sapgir, Genrikh
Russian male poets
Russian male novelists
Russian male short story writers
1928 births
1999 deaths
Writers from Moscow
Russian Jews
Soviet Jews
Jewish writers
Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery
20th-century novelists
20th-century Russian short story writers
20th-century Russian poets
20th-century Russian male writers