Writers on Writers, Part II: Living and Recent

Abstract

This second part of the special issue of Russian Studies in Literature continues the topic of “Writers on Writers.” Some of the authors presented here are themselves literary critics or scholars, but nevertheless their approach very much has to do with what the writers they discuss mean for their ownwriting practice and potentially offer to other writers as well— not only, though of course also, to readers. The four articles presented here are quite various: they outline the importance of the personality, the individual influence as a fellow author and thinker and as a figure on the poetic scene. Two of the articles are responses to a poet’s recent death, whichmuch like jubilee anniversaries of a poet’s birth will tend to make readers and others pause to sum up their responses to the poet’s life and work, as well as summing up that life and work. The reader will note that we leave well-known names (such as Joseph Brodsky, Andrei Voznesensky, Yevgeny Yevtushenko) in the same spelling to which American readers are accustomed, to avoid unnecessary confusion and assure readers that these are indeed the same people they have read or read about before. Maria Stepanova’s obituary note for Grigorii Dashevskii reflects its deep sadness. Stepanova is clear about Dashevskii’s contributions as a writer and a fellow participant in literary life, while expressing the pain of losing a friend as well as an admired fellow poet. As the brief Russian Studies in Literature, vol. 55, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1–3. © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1061-1975 (print)/ISSN 1944-7167 (online) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10611975.2019.1638216