CULTURE

bringing two countries together

by Aliona Bocharova

Special to The St. Petersburg Times

Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times Pavlic reading his poetry at the Stray Dog Art Basement on Thursday.

St. Petersburg, which has long enjoyed the reputation as a center of the world's literary landscape, has always held an attraction for foreign writers. This summer sees a continuation of this tradtion, in the form of the Summer Literary Seminars, or SLS, a program that began at the Herzen University on Monday and runs through July 12.

The SLS bring some of today's best U.S. writers - both established and those currently making their marks - and literary scholars together with their Russian counterparts for a four-week-long flurry of writing-related activities, such as seminars, lectures and public readings.

The program was started four years ago by its current director, U.S. writer Mikhail Iossel, a St. Petersburg native who emigrated to the U.S. in 1985 with no hope of ever seeing his family or friends again. However, as the political climate changed, Iossel was able to return, and the SLS grew out of his desire to share the literary history of his home town with U.S. writers.

"The initial aim was simply to place St. Petersburg in the literary consciousness of Americans," notes Iossel. Now, however, the program has gained a much wider context, as it has grown in reputation and size - with a faculty of 25 teachers and 70 participating students.

"We believe that a writer can benefit from contact with foreign culture. Removal from a routine context tends to provide a creative jolt, by offering a whole new perspective on the author himself and his surroundings," says Iossel. "We also try to correct the distorted picture of American literature that exists in Russia by bringing the finest American writers and vice versa, as well as bringing new aspects of contemporary literature to attention."

Outside Russia, there is little awareness of the contemporary Russian literary scene, as Russian literature is mainly known abroad for its 19th and early 20th-century authors, such as Dostoevsky, Tolstoi and Nabokov. "The only contemporary Russian writers known in the U.S. are Viktor Pelevin and Natalya Tolstaya, who writes provocative literature reviews for magazines such as The New Yorker," says Iossel.

To solve this, the SLS bring together writers and critics from Moscow and St. Petersburg to talk about contemporary Russian literature and art. Among the faculty members returning from last year are Andei Zorin, one of the foremost scholars of contemporary Russian and world literature, and Arkady Dragomoshchenko, a St. Petersburg poet who has received numerous Russian and international literary awards.

On the U.S. side, the authors conducting the seminars include Jerome Rothenberg, arguably the most European contemporary of U.S. writers, who is known for his two-volume anthology of 20th-century poetry; Dave Eggers, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius;" Ed Pavlic, who "writes jazz;" and Aimee Bender, a leading experimental writer. The seminars will be held at open readings in the Stray Dog Art Basement every Tuesday and Thursday at 7 p.m.

Members of the SLS faculty have also been invited to conduct seminars, while the participants - mainly students majoring in creative writing - submit applications with a literary piece, the main criteria for selection. "A lot of the writers who teach at the SLS would not agree to take part in a similar seminar in the U.S., simply because they are not interested," says Iossel.

One of the main reasons cited for taking part in the SLS is an affection for classical Russian literature. "Although we were brought up on the finest examples of Russian classical literature, some of us bring such books as Dostoevsky's "White Nights," or Gogol's "Nevsky Prospect" to re-read them in the original, magical atmosphere of Petersburg," says Jeff Parker, the program's assistant director, and an author of short stories and novels.

Croatian-born writer Joseph Novakovich puts it this way: "Going out into the unknown is always exciting. Eastern Europe, and Russia specifically, has always been a place that evoked doubts, fear and interest."

Participants in the SLS are also willing to learn about the state of Russian literature and art at present. "The students plan on spending a lot of time hanging around alternative galleries, such as the Free Arts Foundation at Pushkinskaya 10, and the Borei Art Gallery", says Iossel. Anna Matveyeva, a leading young Russian art critic and a member of the faculty, will accompany participants on June 29 to the annual art festival at Pushkinskaya 10.

"Russian literature today is nearing [Western litarature] in certain way. If we are talking about electronic, Internet literature, one may find that the Internet is becoming more accessible, and the chain of Internet cafes is constantly growing", notes Parker, who is also a Web designer that teaches interactive media.

Nevertheless, there is a certain local spirit to St. Petersburg's culture that could be a source for inspiration for many foreign writers. For example, Parker makes the following observation, which might one day make it into one of his stories: "My friend is drinking beer sitting on the steps of the Kazan Cathedral. Once he is finished, he puts it down nearby and starts his stopwatch. He waits until a babushka approaches him to ask for the empty bottle. Seven seconds, that is the record so far, he says."

Links: www.sumlitsem.org

More stories by this section:

pep-see put the fizz into pop | chernov's choice | who's a pretty polly then? | celebrating a great teacher | inside the mind of mussorgsky | the rewards of cooperation | a return to top form | brothers doin' it for themselves

Or take part in the discussion below.