Translated from the Russian by Genya Turovskaya and Stephanie Sandler.
THE RUSSIAN VERSION is a collection of poems that spans Russia's
post-Soviet era. Acclaimed journalist and poet, Elena Fanailova tells
stories about the various social layers of a stratified and conflicted
nation, reclaiming the poet's role as social critic, while scrutinizing
her own position as citizen and poet. Fanailova's political lyricism
casts personal pain into the net of historical suffering. THE
RUSSIAN VERSION received the 2010 Best Translated Book Award for Poetry
from Three Percent. In her citation for the award, Idra Novey, chair of
the BTBA panel for poetry wrote: "THE RUSSIAN VERSION obliterates the
stereotype of what Great Russian Poetry should sound like. Fanailova has
the candor and compassion of Akhmatova and a gift for striking metaphor
that might bring Mandelstam to mind. She is also ruthlessly quick to
fire 'from the hip,' as she says in the title poem, and her aim is
impeccable." THE RUSSIAN VERSION includes an introduction by
Russian poet and critic Aleksandr Skidan. The 2019 second edition of THE
RUSSIAN VERSION (first published by UDP in 2009) includes a more recent
long poem, 'Lena and Lena.'