Stepanova, Maria

Maria Stepanova (c) Andrey Natotsinsky

Maria Stepanova, born in Moscow in 1972, is a world-renowned novelist, essayist and poet. She has received the Andrei Belyj Prize and the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding, among others, and was also shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. Three books are translated into German by Olga Radetzkaja, published by Suhrkamp Verlag: The most recent ones are the poetry volumes “Der Körper kehrt wieder” (Suhrkamp Verlag 2020), “Mädchen ohne Kleider” (Suhrkamp Verlag 2022) und “Winterpoem 20/21” (Suhrkamp Verlag 2023).

Festival Content

POETRY TALK: Polina Barskova & Maria Stepanova

Wo die Toten sich unter die Lebenden mischen

Clubraum 7/5€ | Tickets

Polina Barskova (born in Leningrad in 1976) and Maria Stepanova (born in Moscow in 1972) are two eminent Russian writers of their generation, sharing a strong grasp of their language’s storied, and not quite unproblematic, poetic tradition. Their writing is elicited by interactions with other literature, but remains utterly original, sensual, and erudite. As subversive imitators of voices and forms, Barskova and Stepanova’s playfulness nevertheless has a more serious backdrop, as their work always contends with histories of war. Poetry thus becomes an instrument of both documentation and resistance.

 

Barskova, Polina • Stepanova, Maria