Anzhelina Polonskaya was born in Malakhovka, a small town near Moscow. Since 1998, she has been a member of the Moscow Union of Writers and in 2003, Polonskaya became a member of the Russian PEN-centre. In 2004 an English version of her book, entitled A Voice, appeared in the acclaimed “Writings from an Unbound Europe” series at Northwestern University Press. This book was shortlisted for the 2005 Corneliu M Popescu Prize for European Poetry in Translation. Between 2006 and the present Polonskaya has had the opportunity to participate in a number of prestigious writing residencies, including those of the Cove Park Scottish Arts Council, the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers, the MacDowell Colony, the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, and the Villa Sträuli in Zurich.
Polonskaya has published translations in many of the leading world poetry journals, including The American Poetry Review, AGNI, Ploughshares and The Kenyon Review, Narrative, New England Review, Image etc.
In October 2011 the “Oratorio-Requiem” Kursk, whose libretto consists of ten of Polonskaya’s poems had its acclaimed debut at the Melbourne Arts Festival. In 2013 the bilingual edition Paul Klee’s Boat was published by Zephyr Press and shortlisted for the 2014 US PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. Zephyr Press published a second collection of Polonskaya’s work entitled To the Ashes in 2019. Her work has also been translated into German, Dutch, Slovenian, Latvian, and Spanish. «To the Ashes” has been shortlisted to AATSEEL AWARD, 2021
Awards:
International Words on Borders´ Freedom Prize (Ord i Grenseland ), 2016
Pushcart Prize nomination 2019,2024
Books:
“Svetoch Moy Nebesny” (My Heavenlike Torch, 1993);
” Stixotvorenia” (“Poems”, Moscow Writer Publishing House, 1998);
Nebo glazami riadovogo(“The Sky Through a Private’s Eye”, Kogelet Publishing House, 1999);
“Golos” (“ A Voice”, Moscow, Podkova Pablishing House 2002);
“A Voice” – Selected poems ( Northwestern University Press 2004, USA);
“Sneg vnutri”(“Snow within”R. Elinina, classic century21st, 2008)
“Paul Klee’s Boat” – Zephyr Press 2013, USA.
“Schwärzer als Weiß“-LLV, Leipzig 2015, Germany
“Grönland”, Akademie Schloss Solitude 2016, Germany
“To the Ashes” , – Zephyr Press April, 2019, USA
“ Unvollendete Musik”, poetry collection, LLV, 2020, Leipzig, Germany
«Moge die Nacht nicht enden”, Collection of shoert stories,LLV, 2022, Leipzig,Germany
“Take me to Stavanger”, poetry collection, Pittsburgh University Press, 2023, USA
Anthology:
Grand Tour. Reisen durch die junge Lyrik Europas. Herausgegeben von Federico Italiano und Jan Wagner. Hanser Verlag, 2019
“In der nie endenden bernsteinfarbenenn acht stimmen aus dem exil“
Andrew Wachtel has served as rector of Narxoz University in Almaty, Kazakhstan and President of the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Before coming to Central Asia in 2010, he was dean of The Graduate School and director of the Roberta Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern University. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, his interests range from Russian literature and culture to East European and Balkan culture, history and politics to contemporary Central Asia. He translates from Russian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Slovene and his book of translations of Anzhelina Polonskaya, Paul Klee’s Boat, was short-listed for the 2014 PEN Poetry Translation Prize.
