(le) poisson rouge

Inga Kuznetsova was born in the Krasnodar region in 1974. She studied journalism, philosophy, and literary criticism at Moscow State University, and published her first poems at age 19, winning the Pushkin National Prize for Student Poetry two years later in 1995. Her first book of poems, Sni-Sinitsi (Chickadee Dreams), won the Triumph youth prize and the Moscow Score Award for best debut in 2003. Kuznetsova’s poems have been translated into English, French, Chinese and Georgian, and are featured in Contemporary Russian Poetry (Dalkey Archive, 2008) and The Anthology of Contemporary Russian Women Poets (University of Iowa Press, 2005). She has appeared at multiple poetry festivals, including the Frankfurt Book Fair (2003) and the “Small Silk Road” festival (Odessa-Georgia, 2005). Kuznetsova’s poetry is at once metaphysical and existential, characterized by strong visual metaphors and particular attention to rhythm and sound.

Pavel Nastin, born in 1972 in Kaliningrad, is a poet, photographer, and independent curator. Nastin’s work has been translated into English and Swedish and published in journals in Russia, Europe and the US. In 2005, he published a book of poetry titled Yazyk Zhestov (Sign Language); his poems are also featured in two anthologies of work by Kaliningrad writers. Nastin received the LiteratuRRentgen prize in 2006 for curating the SLOWWWO contemporary poetry festival, and again in 2008 for the poetry website polutona.ru. He was also shortlisted for the Andrey Bely Award in the Literary Projects category in 2009. He has appeared at multiple poetry festivals across Russia and abroad, including the Moscow International Poetry Festival (Biennial) in 2005 and 2007, and the Sodermalms Poesifestival (Stockholm) in 2006.

Natalia Sannikova, born in 1969, is a poet and journalist from the Sverdlovsk region of Russia. In her own words, she “started writing poetry as soon as I learned the alphabet – my mom told me to.” Her work began appearing in major Russian literary journals and anthologies in 2001, and she published her first book of poetry, Intermezzo, in 2003. Sannikova has appeared at several poetry symposiums and festivals, most recently the SlovoNova festival in Perm in 2009. She was one of the creators of the LiteratuRRentgen prize for Russian writers living outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and continues to serve as a nominator for the prize. She is also involved in organizing the festival of the same name in Ekaterinburg, where the prize is awarded. For the past few years, Sannikova has also been on the jury of the municipal poetry competition in her home town, and involved in other projects to advance the work of talented writers in the region.

Sergei Sokolovskiy, born in 1972, is a prose writer and editor. Sokolovskiy’s short fiction has been published in the anthologies Babylon (winning first prize for prose in the Ulov online literary competition in 2000), Okrestnosti, Avtornik and others. His novella “Fast Food” was published as a stand-alone book in 2002. Together with Danila Davydov, he published and edited the journal Shestaya Kolonna (Sixth Column) in 1998; he was also the editor the Okrestnosti (The Environs) anthology in 2000-2001. His publishing house Autochton has published a series of books by young authors. Sokolovskiy has served as the secretary of the Debut literary prize and curates the website Vernitskii Literature: Young Russian Writers. He lives in Moscow.