Maria Stepanova

An exploration of life at the margins of history from one of Russia's most exciting contemporary writers

In Memory of Memory

Maria Stepanova is one of the most powerful and distinctive voices of Russia’s first post-Soviet literary generation. An award-winning poet and prose writer, she has also founded a major platform for independent journalism. Her verse blends formal mastery with a keen ear for the evolution of spoken language. As Russia’s political climate has turned increasingly repressive, Stepanova has responded with engaged writing that grapples with the persistence of violence in her country’s past and present. Some of her most remarkable recent work as a poet and essayist considers the conflict in Ukraine and the debasement of language that has always accompanied war. The Voice Over brings together two decades of Stepanova’s work, showcasing her range, virtuosity, and creative evolution. Stepanova’s poetic voice constantly sets out in search of new bodies to inhabit, taking established forms and styles and rendering them into something unexpected and strange. Recognizable patterns of ballads, elegies, and war songs are transposed into a new key, infused with foreign strains, and juxtaposed with unlikely neighbors. As an essayist, Stepanova engages deeply with writers who bore witness to devastation and dramatic social change, as seen in searching pieces on W. G. Sebald, Marina Tsvetaeva, and Susan Sontag. Including contributions from ten translators, The Voice Over shows English-speaking readers why Stepanova is one of Russia’s most acclaimed contemporary writers.

Poems and Essays

The Voice Over

Liebesgeschichten und Reiseberichte, Reflexionen über Fotografie, Erinnerung und Trauma: In einer dichten poetischen Sprache verwebt Maria Stepanova Fundstücke zu einem Jahrhundert ihrer jüdisch-russisch-europäischen Familiengeschichte. Maria Stepanova erzählt von ihrer weitverzweigten Familie von Ärzten, Architekten, Bibliothekaren, Buchhaltern und Ingenieuren, die in unzivilisierten, gewaltgeprägten Zeiten ein stilles, unspektakuläres Leben führen wollten. Prädestiniert, Opfer von Verfolgung und Repressionen zu werden, ist es all ihren Verwandten gelungen, die Schrecken des 20. Jahrhunderts zu überleben. Wie war das möglich? Auf der Suche nach den eigenen Wurzeln durchmisst die Autorin einen Gedächtnisraum, in dem die Linien des privaten Lebens haarscharf an den Abbruchkanten der Epochenlandschaft entlangführen. »Bei allen anderen bestand die Familie aus Teilnehmern der Geschichte, bei mir nur aus ihren Untermietern.«

Leipziger Buchpreis zur Europäischen Verständigung 2023

Nach dem Gedächtnis

This pocket-sized paperback is one of the thirty titles published for 2019 Hong Kong International Poetry Nights. The theme of IPHHK2019 is "Speech and Silence". From 19–24 November 2019, 30 invited poets from various countries gathered in Hong Kong to read their works based on the theme "Speech and Silence." Included in the anthology and box set, these unique works are presented with Chinese and English translations in bilingual or trilingual formats. Poets include Ana Luísa Amaral (Portugal), Maxim Amelin (Russia), Renato Sandoval Bacigalupo (Peru) , Jen Bervin (USA), Ana Blandiana (Romania), Tamim Al-Barghouti (Palestine), Abbas Beydoun (Lebanon), Milosz Biedrzycki (Poland), Derek Chung (Hong Kong), Louise Dupre (Canada), Forrest Gander (USA), Hwang Yu Won (South Korea), Maozi (PRC), Mathura (Estonia), Sergio Raimondi (Argentina), Ana Ristović (Serbia), K. Satchidanandan (India), Martin Solotruk (Slovakia), Ales Steger (Slovenia), Maria Stepanova (Russia), Toth Krisztina (Hungary), Ijeoma Umebinyuo (Nigeria), Anastassis Vistonitis (Greece), Jan Wagner (Germany), Ernest Wichner (Germany), Yang Chia-Hsien (Taiwan), Yasuhiro Yotsumoto (Japan), Yu Youyou (PRC), Zheng Xiaoqiong (PRC), and Zhou Yunpeng (PRC).

The Flower Dies under a Skin of Glass

Maria Stepanova is one of the most powerful and distinctive voices of Russia's first post-Soviet literary generation. The Voice Over brings together two decades of Stepanova's work, showcasing her range, virtuosity, and creative evolution.

The Voice Over: Poems and Essays

Kroppens återkomst

First full English translation of the poetry of Maria Stepanova, one of Russia's most innovative and exciting poets and thinkers.

War of the Beasts and the Animals

Sasha Dugdale (Translator)

From the renowned Russian author of In Memory of Memory comes a haunting meditation on identity, exile, language, art, and the fragile desire to disappear. The writer M has been living in exile in the city of B since her homeland declared war on a neighbouring state. Wracked by shame and despair, and severed from her language, M finds herself unable to write, unmoored in a present where the future feels unknowable. When she is invited to give a reading at a literary festival in a nearby country, a strange turn of events occurs. After a series of missed connections and mishaps during her trip, including losing her phone, she finds herself stranded and untraceable in an unfamiliar coastal town. Cut off from everyone she knows, M feels a sense of freedom and the possibility of starting over, but memories of childhood, books, films, and tarot cards pull her back, the last fragments of a vanishing world. Then she meets a troupe of circus performers who invite her to join them, and reinvention feels within reach. In this brief interlude, it seems as if M may finally escape from herself, her past, and her nationality. Written in rich and hypnotic prose, The Disappearing Act oscillates between reality and dream, between an oppressive present and a lost past, between life and literature.

The Disappearing Act

Traducere și note de Luana Schidu Romanul În amintirea memoriei a fost distins în 2018 cu Premiul Bolșaia Kniga, propulsând-o pe Maria Stepanova în rândul marilor prozatori ruși actuali. Reușind să cuprindă diferitele forme – ficțiune, eseu, memoir, jurnal de călătorie, documente istorice – într-o vastă panoramă a ideilor și personalităților, Stepanova proiectează, cu precizie și lirism totodată, o inedită și îndrăzneață explorare a memoriei culturale și personale. Fotografii, ilustrate, cărți, scrisori și obiecte vechi, răzlețe – din toate acestea, autoarea reconstituie povestea familiei sale, o poveste ce nu se lasă scrisă ușor, dar care treptat crește, căpătând, parcă, o viață proprie și devenind istoria unei lumi pe parcursul unui secol. Deopotrivă roman documentar, eseu și poem în proză, într-o înșiruire de imagini care apar și dispar, într-un joc de lumini și umbre, Stepanova își ține cititorul în mrejele poveștii sale cu iscusința unei Șeherezade. Oamenii și urmele lor pier, lucrurile își pierd sensul, iar mărturiile vorbesc limbi moarte, lăsându-ne, în cele din urmă, față în față cu propria istorie și cu propriile întrebări despre cum poate fi păstrată memoria trecutului.

In amintirea memoriei

När faster Galja dör lämnar hon efter sig en lägenhet full av bråte. Ingen vet var alla gamla saker kommer ifrån och fotoalbumen är fyllda av gåtfulla, främmande ansikten. Författaren börjar sortera bland släktens minnen, och fram växer en märkvärdig text som hon burit inom sig hela livet: en förening av familjekrönika, memoar, essä och historia. Maria Stepanovas jakt efter släktminnen går genom en rad berättelser om fotoalbum, grötdockor, kärleksbrev och angivarbrev, från judiska begravningsplatser till Leningrads belägring. I dialog med författare som Mandelstam, Proust och Sebald skapar hon en på samma gång riktningslös och mycket vittfamnande berättelse. Maria Stepanova, född 1972 i Moskva, är poet, essäist, journalist och chefredaktör för nättidningen colta.ru. Minnen av minnet, hennes första roman, har fått mycket uppmärksamhet både i Ryssland och internationellt och har belönats Bolshaya Kniga-priset och Jasnaja Poljanas läsarpris.

Maria Stepanova

About

Books

Join the club