It's No Good
poems / essays / actions
Medvedev, Kirill
Vertaald door: Keith Gessen, with Mark Krotov, Cory Merrill, and Bela Shayevich
Ugly Duckling Presse, 288 blz., paperback, 2016, ISBN 9781937027827
Medvedev, Kirill
Vertaald door: Keith Gessen, with Mark Krotov, Cory Merrill, and Bela Shayevich
Ugly Duckling Presse, 288 blz., paperback, 2016, ISBN 9781937027827
Edited by Keith Gessen; Translated by Keith Gessen, Mark Krotov, Cory Merrill, and Bela Shayevich. Guest translation editor: Isabel Lane.
Edited and introduced by Keith Gessen, It’s No Good includes selected poems from Kirill Medvedev’s four books of poetry as well as his most significant essays: “My Fascism” (on the failure of post-Soviet Russian liberalism, politically and culturally); “Literature and Sincerity” (on the attractions and dangers of the “new sincerity” in Russian letters); “Dmitry Kuzmin, a Memoir” (a detailed memoir and analysis of the work of the 1990s Moscow poet, publisher, and impresario Kuzmin, and what his activity represents). This is Medvedev’s first book in English.
Born in Moscow, in 1975, Kirill Medvedev has recently emerged as one of the most exciting, unpredictable voices on the Russian literary scene. Widely published and acclaimed as a poet, he is also is an activist for labor and a member of the Russian Socialist movement “Vpered” [Forward]. He contributes essays regularly to Chto Delat’, and other opposition magazines. His small press, The Free Marxist Publishing House [SMI], has recently released his translations of Pasolini, Eagleton, and Goddard, as well as numerous books at the intersection of literature, art and politics, including a collection of his own essays. This is Medvedev’s first book in English.
“Kirill Medvedev is the most exciting phenomenon in Russian poetry at the beginning of the new century. To be fair, that’s not a compliment. It’s a judgment. You get the sense that Medvedev has no fear, and that this fearlessness costs him nothing. Such things are rarely forgiven.” —
- Dmitry Vodennikov
It’s No Good offers a broad portrait of the author as an idiosyncratic and uncompromising thinker. It aims to encapsulate the diversity—and the interconnectedness—of his activities as a poet, a cultural critic and an activist.
- Rachel Wetzler, The New York Observer
Part of the nightmare world that It’s No Good evokes is one that both Orwell and the members of Pussy Riot would understand. It’s a nightmare of euphemism and cant. “This is what happens,” Mr. Medvedev writes, “when the authorities don’t want to speak clearly and don’t want to be spoken of clearly, either."
- Dwight Garner, The New York Times
Born in Moscow, in 1975, Kirill Medvedev has recently emerged as one of the most exciting, unpredictable voices on the Russian literary scene. Widely published and acclaimed as a poet, he is also is an activist for labor and a member of the Russian Socialist movement “Vpered” [Forward]. He contributes essays regularly to Chto Delat’, and other opposition magazines. His small press, The Free Marxist Publishing House [SMI], has recently released his translations of Pasolini, Eagleton, and Goddard, as well as numerous books at the intersection of literature, art and politics, including a collection of his own essays. This is Medvedev’s first book in English.
“Kirill Medvedev is the most exciting phenomenon in Russian poetry at the beginning of the new century. To be fair, that’s not a compliment. It’s a judgment. You get the sense that Medvedev has no fear, and that this fearlessness costs him nothing. Such things are rarely forgiven.” —
- Dmitry Vodennikov
It’s No Good offers a broad portrait of the author as an idiosyncratic and uncompromising thinker. It aims to encapsulate the diversity—and the interconnectedness—of his activities as a poet, a cultural critic and an activist.
- Rachel Wetzler, The New York Observer
Part of the nightmare world that It’s No Good evokes is one that both Orwell and the members of Pussy Riot would understand. It’s a nightmare of euphemism and cant. “This is what happens,” Mr. Medvedev writes, “when the authorities don’t want to speak clearly and don’t want to be spoken of clearly, either."
- Dwight Garner, The New York Times
Op voorraad
€ 27,50