Dmitry Kuzmin

This article is about the contemporary Russian literary figure. For the incumbent mayor of the Russian city, Stavropol, see Dmitry Sergeyevich Kuzmin.

Dmitry Kuzmin in 2004

Dmitry Vladimirovich Kuzmin (Russian: Дми́трий Влади́мирович Кузьми́н), born on December 12, 1968, is a Russian poet, critic, and publisher.

Biography

Dmitry Kuzmin was born in Moscow, son of the architect Vladimir Legoshin and the literary critic Edwarda Kuzmina; among his grandparents were the critic Boris Kuzmin and the prominent literary translator Nora Gal. In 1985-87 he was enrolled in philology at the Moscow State University, but was expelled from it. He graduated with a Bachelor degree in philology from the Moscow State Pedagogical University in 1993. For a brief period of time he was employed as a teacher of literature in a Moscow secondary school. In 2005, he got a PhD for his thesis on one-line poems. He lives in Moscow.

Activities

Kuzmin started his literary career in 1988 by organizing a group of poets who now are known as the "Vavilon" circle of poets/writers (which means Babylon). He and his friends started publishing an independent book series called “ The Library of Young Literature”. In 1993 he founded the ARGO-RISK Press^{[citation needed]} (Russian: АРГО-РИСК), an independent poetry press. In 1996 he published the first issue of the gay almanac called RISK. In 1997 he created the e-library Vavilon.ru, ca. 180 Russian writers enlisted^[1]. Kuzmin declared that the main purpose of the site was to resist the huge wave of “commercial literature”, which began flooding the Russian market for the first time since the 1920s. In 2007, he founded LitKarta, a reference site that provides information on ca. 1300 members of the Russian literary community. Yet in 1997 he was mentioned as "a leading figure in Moscow literary life";^[2] ten years later he is treated as "the most prolific curator of Russian poetry in the early 21st century"^[3] and "the most advanced content-provider and promoter of the contemporary Russian poetry tendencies".^[4]

Kuzmin organised quite a number of poetry readings and festivals, "non-commercial", as he referred to them. He claims that he has published about 300 books by other writers - as he puts it, "these are small modest publications, but they aren’t chapbooks — they are complete, full-fledged collections"^[3]. He won a few awards for promotion of the works by young writers (including the Andrei Bely Prize in 2002;^[5] then he served for this award as its Committee member^[6]). Since 2006 he has been editing the literary magazine called Vozdukh, "the newest undertaking of the effervescent young poet, critic and publisher" as Canadian slavist Allan Reid put it.^[7] In 2007, the assembly of the editors of leading Russian literary magazines voted against including Vozdukh in "Zhurnalny Zal", the Internet Library of Russian Literary Magazines,^[8] this decision was claimed controversial and unfair by some Russian authors including Boris Dubin and Alexei Tsvetkov.^[9] Kuzmin is also a member of the Advisory Board for St. Petersburg Review.

Kuzmin actively promotes gay culture and fights homophobia. Kuzmin's poems (including explicitly gay^[10]) and essays appeared in some Russian literary magazines. In 2008 he published a collection of his poems and translations. Some translations of his poems into English (A Public Space,^[11] Habitus,^[12] Aufgabe ^[13] e. a.), French (Europe magazine^[14]), Italian, and Slovenian are published.

Selected bibliography

As editor

• The almanac: RISK (In Russian:1996-2000)
• The haiku almanac: Triton (In Russian:2000-2004)
• Short Texts: An Anthology of One-Line Poems (In Russian:2000)
• Ulysses Released: Contemporary Russian Poets Abroad (In Russian:2004)
• Nine Measurements: An Anthology of Contemporary Russian Poetry (In Russian:2004)
• Contemporary Russian Poetry (In Slovenian:2010)^[15]

As co-editor

• Amerika: Russian Writers View the United States Dalkey Archive Press, 2004.
• An Anthology of Contemporary Russian Women Poets University Of Iowa Press, 2005.

As publisher

• The Series: “Library of Young Russian Writers” (In Russian:1993-1998)
• The Series: “Generations” (In Russian:2004–present)
• The Series: “Vozdukh” (In Russian:2004–present)
• The Poetry Journal Vozdukh (In Russian:2006–present)

English Translations of His Poems

Some of his poems have been translated into English and have appeared in the following publications:

• Essay in Poetics: Journal of Neo-Formalist Circle. Newcastle, Keel University, 1994. / Tr. Robert Reid
• Out of the Blue: Russia's Hidden Gay Literature. An Anthology. Edited by Kevin Moss. San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1996. / Tr. Vitaly Chernetsky
• Crossing Centuries: The New Wave in Russian Poetry. Jersey City, Talisman House Publishers, 2000. / Tr. Vitaly Chernetsky

References

1. ^ Vavilon.ru: authors by alphabet
2. ^ Masha Zavialova. The Russian Poetry Festival, Oct. 17-19, 1998, St. Petersburg, Electronic Poetry Center, 1998.
3. ^ ^{a b} Peter Golub. Inventing Babylon, Jacket, 35, Early 2008.
4. ^ Interview With Dmitry Golynko, Calque, 2008.
5. ^ Dmitriy Kuzmin's bio, CEC ArtsLink
6. ^ David Stromberg. Written history, The St. Petersburg Times, Issue #1142 (8), February 3, 2006.
7. ^ Allan Reid. Vozdukh, New Russian Poetry Journal, Canadian Slavonic Papers/Revue canadienne des slavistes Vol. XLVIII, Nos 3-4, September–December 2006. Pp.423-425.
8. ^ Sergey Kostyrko. Refleksii
9. ^ Zh[urnalny Z[al] protiv Vozdukha. Zachem?]
10. ^ M. Nemtsev. The emergence of a sexual minorities movement in Post-Soviet Russia, Central European University, Department of Gender Studies
11. ^ A Public Space. Issue 2, Table of Contents
12. ^ Habitus: A Diaspora Journal. Issue 5 (Moscow)
13. ^ Aufgabe No. 8, table of contents
14. ^ Europe. Les formalistes russes (n°911, mars 2005)
15. ^ Poezija 25 sodobnih ruskih pesnic in pesnikov, 25. avgust 2010, Ljubljana - MMC RTV SLO/STA

External links

• Kuzmin's Blog

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Name	Kuzmin, Dmitry
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Date of birth	1968
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