Aleksandr Skidan on Close Listening

photo by Charles Bernstein / PennSound

Aleksandr Skidan was born in Leningrad in 1965. He is a poet, critic, essayist, and translator. In 2008 his book Red Shifting was published in USA by Ugly Duckling Presse, tr. Genya Turovskaya. He is the coeditor of the New Literary Observer magazine and lives in Saint Petersburg.

Program One: Skidan reads from Red Shifting (Brooklyn: Ugly Ducking Press, 2008) in Russian as well as reading  the English translations by Genya Turovskaya. MP3

Program Two: Skidan discusses his Ugly Duckling Press book, Red Shifting, the changes in the literary climate in Russia after 1989, the contemporary situation for poetry in Russia, and the mysticism of Arkadii Dragomoschenko.  MP3

Hosted and produced by Charles Bernstein. Recorded on Feb. 27, 2015. 

Skidan PennSound page

Skidan reading in Philadelphia on Feb. 28. Second part of his poem on Godard’s Pierrot le Fou.