Elena Andreevna Shvarts (1948-2010) was intellectual, theatrical, apolitical, Orthodox, a Petersburger, hard-drinking, cat-loving, chain-smoking, rowdy… But, first and foremost, she was a poet. In her writing — which constitutes one of the most important oeuvres in 20th- and 21st-century Russian poetry — Shvarts broke conventions, donned personae, and transcended byt (“everyday existence”). One way she … Continue reading Elena Shvarts