Translators Ainsley Morse and Bela Shayevich will read from their book of translations of Vsevolod Nekrasov, I LIVE I SEE (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2013), offering a taste of the original Russian along with a rich selection of Nekrasov’s work in English. Gerald Janecek, Professor Emeritus in the UK Department of Modern and Classical Languages and author of the book’s afterword, will also speak about his history of working with Nekrasov and other poets of his time.

Vsevolod Nekrasov (1934-2009) was part of the “non-conformist” Lianozovo group, a founder of Moscow Conceptualism, and the foremost poetic minimalist to emerge from the Soviet literary underground. Before the fall of the USSR, his work appeared only in samizdat and Western publications. With an economy of lyrical means and a wry sense of humor, Nekrasov’s early poems rupture Russian poetic traditions and stultified Soviet language, while his later work tackles the excesses of the new Russian order.

Ainsley Morse has been translating 20th- and 21st-century Russian and (former-) Yugoslav literature since 2006. A longtime student of both literatures, she is currently pursuing a PhD in Slavic literatures at Harvard University. Recent publications include

Andrei Sen-Senkov’s Anatomical Theater (translated with Peter Golub, Zephyr Press, 2013). Ongoing translation projects include prose works by Georgii Ball and Viktor Ivaniv and polemical essays by the great Yugoslav writer Miroslav Krleža.

Bela Shayevich is a writer, translator, and illustrator living in Chicago. Her translations have appeared in It’s No Good by Kirill Medvedev (UDP/n+1, 2012) and various periodicals including Little Star, St. Petersburg Review, and Calque. She was the editor of n+1 magazine’s translations of the Pussy Riot closing statements.

The Japan-America Society of Kentucky (aka JASK, a non-profit organization promoting business and cultural interactions between Kentucky and Japan over the past 25 years or so) will host an annual summer festival -- please see http://www.jask.org/festival -- on this coming Saturday, September 7, from 11 am to 7 pm at Downtown Courthouse Plaza. The UK Japan studies program will collaborate with Lafayette High School to run a booth, with the help of volunteer students from both schools. We hope you will be able to come and enjoy a day of Japanese cultural activities, foods, etc.