Exiled Poets Society 

Acclaimed writer Maxim Osipov presents four contemporary Russian poets, giving voice to a different Russia. With amongst others Sergey Gandlevsky and July Gugolev.

Little of contemporary Russian culture still reaches the West. Yet it is precisely in culture that resistance to the status quo and the imagining of another reality can be found. Maxim Osipov (Rock, Paper, Scissors, 2019 Kilometer 101, 2022) presents four leading contemporary Russian-language poets, three of them living in exile since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, who together form the voice of different Russia.

About the poets
Sergei Gandlevsky (1952, Moscow) is the author of 24 books of poetry and prose. Winner of numerous literary awards, including the Small Booker (1995), Kievskie Lavry (2009), Moskovsky Schet (2009) and the Russian National Prize Poet (2010). His poems and prose have been translated into 20 languages.

Yuly Gugolev (1964, Mocow) is author of a book of palindromes and seven books of poetry. Gugolev created a new translation of Brecht’s songs from The Threepenny Opera for the Moscow Art Theatre (directed by Kirill Serebrennikov). Winner of the Moskovsky Schet Grand Prize (2007) and the Poetry Prize (2020).

Irina Evsa (Kharkiv, 1956) is author of fourteen poetry books. Winner of the Boris Chichibabin Memorial International Foundation Prize (2000), the Cultural Hero of the 21st Century Festival Prize (2002), People’s Recognition (2004), the Russian Prize (2016), the Voloshin Prize (2016), the Kievskie Lavry Festival Prize (2018), and a Special Moskovsky Schet Prize. For the past two years she has been living in Germany.

Lena Berson (Omsk) Since 2013 her poetry selections have appeared in various journals and almanacs (Jerusalem Journal, Etazhi, Novy Zhurnal, Berlin. Berega and others). She took part in poetry anthologies about the war in Ukraine (Understood and Witnesses, War, Poems of the Present Time). She is the author of the poetry collection To the Chief of Silence (Babel Publishing House, 2022). She lives in Israel.

Maxim Osipov (1963, Moscow) has been writing and publishing since 2007. Author of six prose collections, winner of several awards for short prose. His stories and essays have been translated into 22 languages. Until 2022 he lived in Tarusa; with the outbreak of the war he left for Germany, and since autumn 2022, as a writer-in-residence, he has been teaching Russian literature at Leiden University and living in Amsterdam. Founder and editor-in-chief of the journal The Fifth Wave.