Elena Shvarts

Elena Shvarts:  (1948–2010), one of the most important contemporary Russian poets, prose writers, essayists, and translators.  She was born in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), and became widely known in Leningrad’s underground literary circles when she was a teenager.  Her poetry circulated in Samizdat, or underground self-published literature, bringing her early fame and a reputation as one of the most unusual writers of her generation.  Among her older and younger contemporaries, who were first officially published during Perestroika in the 1980s, her poetry stands on its own.  She was the recipient of many literary awards in Russia, including the Andrei Belyi Prize (1981) and Severnaia Palmira (1999), many international prizes, as well as Russia’s prestigious Triumph prize in 2003.