Alexei Tsvetkov

Tsvetkov, Alexei Petrovich (also spelled as Aleksei Cvetkov; _ru. Алексе́й Петро́вич Цветко́в; born in Stanyslaviv, Ukraine on February 2, 1947) is a Russian poet and essayist.

Biography

Alexei Tsvetkov grew up in Zaporizhia and briefly studied chemistry at the Odessa University, then history (1965-1968) and journalism (1971-1974) at the Moscow State University. Together with Sergey Gandlevsky, Bakhyt Kenjeev, and Alexander Soprovsky he founded the unofficial group of poets Moscow Time. In 1975 he was arrested and deported from Moscow and in the same year emigrated to the United States. He edited the emigre newspaper "Russkaya Zhizn" (San Francisco ,1976-77). Then he entered the University of Michigan graduate school and in 1983 was awarded a PhD degree. Tsvetkov taught Russian language and literature at Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, than worked as an international broadcaster at the Voice of America radio station. From 1989 until 2007 he worked in the same capacity at the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, first in Munich, later in Prague. Currently he is a freelance writer based in Washington, DC.

Creative output

In the late 80-s he stopped writing poetry and turned to prose. The unfinished novel "Just a Voice", an autobiography of a fictitious Roman soldier (only the adolescence is covered) reflects Tsvetkov's idea of the Roman civilization as one of the summits in the history of the humanity. Alexei Tsvetkov has been considered one of the finest poets of his generation by such critics as A. Skvortsov, A. Lehrman, G. Smith, A. Zorin and poets Andrey Voznesensky, Sergey Gandlevsky, and Mikhail Aizenberg. [ [http://www.ksu.ru/f10/publications/2004/articles.php?id=7&num=39000000 Скворцов, А.Э. Трансформация одного пушкинского мотива у Алексея Цветкова] // Русская и сопоставительная филология: Исследования молодых ученых. Казань: КГУ, 2004, с. 208-214.] [Lehrman, Alexander. Tsvetkov, Aleksei. In Handbook of Russian Literature, ed. Viktor Terras. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1985.] [ [http://www.jstor.org/pss/307369?cookieSet=1 Smith, G. S. Aleksej Tsvetkov's Lost Paradise // Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 30, no. 4 1986.] ] [Вознесенский, Андрей. Минута немолчания. // Ogonyok, no. 22, Moscow, 1989.] [Зорин, А. Изгнанник букваря // NLO, no. 19, Мoscow, 1996, p. 250-260.] [Гандлевский С.М. Порядок слов: стихи, повесть, пьеса, эссе.– Екатеринбург: У-Фактория, 2000.] [ [http://magazines.russ.ru/znamia/2005/8/aiz7.html Айзенберг, М. Минус тридцать по московскому времени] // Znamya, no. 8, Moscow, 2005.]

In 2004, after a 17 year break, Tsvetkov turned back to poetry and within a year and a half prepared a new book of poetry.Alexei Tsvetkov also writes and publishes poetry and essays in English.In 2007 he was awarded Andrei Bely prize for poetry.

Published works

*"Sbornik p'es dlia zhizni solo (Collection of Pieces for Life Solo)", Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1978.
*"Sostoianie sna (Dream State)", Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1981.
*"Edem (Eden)", Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1985.
*"Stikhotvoreniia (Poems)", St. Petersburg: Pushkinskii fond, 1996.
*"Divno molvit'. Sobranie stikhotvorenii (Wonderful to Utter)", St. Petersburg: Pushkinskii fond, 2001.
*"Prosto golos (Just a Voice)", Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Moscow, 2002.
*"Bestiarii (Bestiary)", Ekaterinburg: Evdokiia, 2004.
*"Shekspir otdykhaet (Shakespeare at Rest)", St. Petersburg: Pushkinskii fond, 2006.
*"Imena liubvi (Names of Love)", Moscow: Novoe izdatel'stvo, 2007.
*"Edem i drugoe (Eden, and More)", Moscow: OGI, 2007.
*"Atlanticheskii dnevnik (The Atlantic Diary)", Moscow: Novoe izdatel'stvo, 2007.
*"Rovnyi veter (The Even Wind)", Moscow: Novoe izdatel'stvo, 2008.

External links

In English:
* [http://egononsum.wordpress.com/ Personal English poetry blog]
* [http://www.poetrymagazine.org/magazine/0208/comment_181109.html Leaving Prague in Poetry magazine]

In Russian:
* [http://www.vavilon.ru/texts/tsvetkov0.html Homepage on the Vavilon site]
* [http://www.rvb.ru/np/publication/02comm/34/01tsvetkov.htm Homepage on the Neoficial'naia poeziia site]
* [http://magazines.russ.ru/authors/t/tsvetkov/ Zhurnal'nyi zal]
* [http://aptsvet.livejournal.com/ Personal Russian poetry blog]

References

Other sources

*Lowe, David. Russian Writings Since 1953. A Critical History. Ungar, NY, 1987.
*Панн, Л. Нескучный сад. – Hermitage Publishers, 1998.
*Смит, Дж. Взгляд извне. Статьи о русской поэзии и поэтике. М.: Языки славянской культуры, 2002.