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EDNOTE" While not to be confused with the NABOKOV 101 summer seminar in the
Saint Petersburg VN Museum, this program might be something of interest to
those wanting to get oriented to VN's homedown.
========================================
THE WRITE STUFF
By Stephen Boykewich
STAFF WRITER
Photo by NATASHA DANCHENKOVA / FOR SPT
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/143815/[13]
The Write Stuff
A St. Petersburg program encourages aspiring U.S. authors to find
themselves by getting lost.
By Stephen Boykewich
Published: July 8, 2005
No matter how carefully the organizers of the St. Petersburg Summer
Literary Seminars had planned, it wasn't long before a young American
poet ran into a problem that no one was ready for. The masking tape
wasn't holding his left shoe together.
It was one of the smaller challenges that faced the 122 aspiring
writers who spent the last four weeks in the spiritual home of Fyodor
Dostoevsky and Alexander Blok. SLS, now in its seventh year, plunges a
group of mostly U.S. students into a deliberately overfull schedule of
workshops, seminars, literary walks and readings. It also plunges them
into the Russian language with nothing but a 90-minute crash course at
the start of each two-week session.
"We just about cover the alphabet," said instructor Maria Guseva.
"But you'd be surprised how quickly people learn to read signs and
find their way around."They do have plenty of help. A typical weekday
during the second session offered three simultaneous literary walks
sandwiched between a lecture on Russian absurdism and a faculty
reading, with bilingual staff members on hand all the way. But with
the elated atmosphere of the White Nights and the adventurousness of
the students, staff supervision doesn't always end when the
officially scheduled day does.
"There's a fair amount of shepherding students home from bars at 6 in
the morning," said participant liaison Jamie Kembrey.
Kembrey has been both shepherd and sheep, having attended the first
SLS as a student in 1999. Then, he said, it was a very different
program. The 12 students and two faculty members who attended that
year have since grown by a factor of 10, filling the program's
headquarters at the Herzen Inn and a half-dozen small hotels close to
Kazan Cathedral. As the program has grown, it has attracted
ever-brighter literary lights to the faculty: Two U.S. poet laureates
attended in 2004, and U.S. novelist William Vollmann led this year's
pack.
"We're limited at this point by the infrastructure of the city," said
program founder and co-director Mikhail Iossel. The Leningrad-born
Iossel won't consider moving the program out of the city center, as
the experience of getting lost on the streets Pushkin and Gogol
walked is half the reason SLS exists.
"It's a really severe displacement for most students," Iossel said.
"For many it's a life-changing experience. It's a chance to get lost
emotionally in a very findable context."
Poet Daniel Feinberg, 24, got right into the spirit of things at the
start of the second session -- once he'd found stronger tape for his
left shoe. On his second night in Russia, he was drinking wine on the
roof of St. Isaac's Cathedral.
"This isn't the kind of thing you do with a tour group," Feinberg
said.
Feinberg's program costs were defrayed by a prize from Fence
magazine, which runs a writing contest whose first prize is a full
scholarship to SLS. Students without prizes or scholarships pay
$1,750 for a single two-week session or $2,350 for both.
At a seminar titled "Untranslatable Russia," Oxford professor Andrei
Zorin discussed Russian cultural phenomena that often baffle
foreigners. His students seemed eager to show their familiarity with
the Slavic soul. One introduced herself as "probably the biggest
Yesenin fan in North America." When the next student called herself
"the biggest Nabokov fan in North America," a third said, "Don't be
so sure."
According to Iossel, the program is drawing an increasing number of
students who return year after year -- in part because the
strangeness of the city only grows as students come to know it.
"St. Petersburg is a place that never lets you get too close," Iossel
said. "I lived here for 30 years and I still feel that way." [14]
Natasha Danchenkova / For MT
In 1999, The New Yorker put William Vollmann on its list of the 20
best U.S. writers under 40.
======================================================
[15]
Natasha Danchenkova / For MT
In 1999, The New Yorker put William Vollmann on its list of the 20
best U.S. writers under 40.
The Write Stuff
A St. Petersburg program encourages aspiring U.S. authors to find
themselves by getting lost.
By Stephen Boykewich
Published: July 8, 2005
No matter how carefully the organizers of the St. Petersburg Summer
Literary Seminars had planned, it wasn't long before a young American
poet ran into a problem that no one was ready for. The masking tape
wasn't holding his left shoe together.
It was one of the smaller challenges that faced the 122 aspiring
writers who spent the last four weeks in the spiritual home of Fyodor
Dostoevsky and Alexander Blok. SLS, now in its seventh year, plunges a
group of mostly U.S. students into a deliberately overfull schedule of
workshops, seminars, literary walks and readings. It also plunges them
into the Russian language with nothing but a 90-minute crash course at
the start of each two-week session.
"We just about cover the alphabet," said instructor Maria Guseva.
"But you'd be surprised how quickly people learn to read signs and
find their way around."
They do have plenty of help. A typical weekday during the second
session offered three simultaneous literary walks sandwiched between
a lecture on Russian absurdism and a faculty reading, with bilingual
staff members on hand all the way. But with the elated atmosphere of
the White Nights and the adventurousness of the students, staff
supervision doesn't always end when the officially scheduled day
does.
"There's a fair amount of shepherding students home from bars at 6 in
the morning," said participant liaison Jamie Kembrey.
Kembrey has been both shepherd and sheep, having attended the first
SLS as a student in 1999. Then, he said, it was a very different
program. The 12 students and two faculty members who attended that
year have since grown by a factor of 10, filling the program's
headquarters at the Herzen Inn and a half-dozen small hotels close to
Kazan Cathedral. As the program has grown, it has attracted
ever-brighter literary lights to the faculty: Two U.S. poet laureates
attended in 2004, and U.S. novelist William Vollmann led this year's
pack.
"We're limited at this point by the infrastructure of the city," said
program founder and co-director Mikhail Iossel. The Leningrad-born
Iossel won't consider moving the program out of the city center, as
the experience of getting lost on the streets Pushkin and Gogol
walked is half the reason SLS exists.
"It's a really severe displacement for most students," Iossel said.
"For many it's a life-changing experience. It's a chance to get lost
emotionally in a very findable context."
Poet Daniel Feinberg, 24, got right into the spirit of things at the
start of the second session -- once he'd found stronger tape for his
left shoe. On his second night in Russia, he was drinking wine on the
roof of St. Isaac's Cathedral.
"This isn't the kind of thing you do with a tour group," Feinberg
said.
Feinberg's program costs were defrayed by a prize from Fence
magazine, which runs a writing contest whose first prize is a full
scholarship to SLS. Students without prizes or scholarships pay
$1,750 for a single two-week session or $2,350 for both.
At a seminar titled "Untranslatable Russia," Oxford professor Andrei
Zorin discussed Russian cultural phenomena that often baffle
foreigners. His students seemed eager to show their familiarity with
the Slavic soul. One introduced herself as "probably the biggest
Yesenin fan in North America." When the next student called herself
"the biggest Nabokov fan in North America," a third said, "Don't be
so sure."
According to Iossel, the program is drawing an increasing number of
students who return year after year -- in part because the
strangeness of the city only grows as students come to know it.
"St. Petersburg is a place that never lets you get too close," Iossel
said. "I lived here for 30 years and I still feel that way."
Links:
------
[1] http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/143815/
[2] http://www.sptimes.ru/index.htm
[3] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16234.htm
[4]
http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16234_4910.htm
[5] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16229.htm
[6] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16230.htm
[7] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16231.htm
[8] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16232.htm
[9] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16233.htm
[10] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16235.htm
[11] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16236.htm
[12] mailto:letters@sptimesrussia.com?subject=The write stuff
[13] http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/143815/
[14]
http://ad.moscowtimes.ru/cgi-bin/ad/adclick.cgi?gid=29&layout=multi&id=702
[15] http://context.themoscowtimes.com/
----- End forwarded message -----
Saint Petersburg VN Museum, this program might be something of interest to
those wanting to get oriented to VN's homedown.
========================================
THE WRITE STUFF
By Stephen Boykewich
STAFF WRITER
Photo by NATASHA DANCHENKOVA / FOR SPT
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/143815/[13]
The Write Stuff
A St. Petersburg program encourages aspiring U.S. authors to find
themselves by getting lost.
By Stephen Boykewich
Published: July 8, 2005
No matter how carefully the organizers of the St. Petersburg Summer
Literary Seminars had planned, it wasn't long before a young American
poet ran into a problem that no one was ready for. The masking tape
wasn't holding his left shoe together.
It was one of the smaller challenges that faced the 122 aspiring
writers who spent the last four weeks in the spiritual home of Fyodor
Dostoevsky and Alexander Blok. SLS, now in its seventh year, plunges a
group of mostly U.S. students into a deliberately overfull schedule of
workshops, seminars, literary walks and readings. It also plunges them
into the Russian language with nothing but a 90-minute crash course at
the start of each two-week session.
"We just about cover the alphabet," said instructor Maria Guseva.
"But you'd be surprised how quickly people learn to read signs and
find their way around."They do have plenty of help. A typical weekday
during the second session offered three simultaneous literary walks
sandwiched between a lecture on Russian absurdism and a faculty
reading, with bilingual staff members on hand all the way. But with
the elated atmosphere of the White Nights and the adventurousness of
the students, staff supervision doesn't always end when the
officially scheduled day does.
"There's a fair amount of shepherding students home from bars at 6 in
the morning," said participant liaison Jamie Kembrey.
Kembrey has been both shepherd and sheep, having attended the first
SLS as a student in 1999. Then, he said, it was a very different
program. The 12 students and two faculty members who attended that
year have since grown by a factor of 10, filling the program's
headquarters at the Herzen Inn and a half-dozen small hotels close to
Kazan Cathedral. As the program has grown, it has attracted
ever-brighter literary lights to the faculty: Two U.S. poet laureates
attended in 2004, and U.S. novelist William Vollmann led this year's
pack.
"We're limited at this point by the infrastructure of the city," said
program founder and co-director Mikhail Iossel. The Leningrad-born
Iossel won't consider moving the program out of the city center, as
the experience of getting lost on the streets Pushkin and Gogol
walked is half the reason SLS exists.
"It's a really severe displacement for most students," Iossel said.
"For many it's a life-changing experience. It's a chance to get lost
emotionally in a very findable context."
Poet Daniel Feinberg, 24, got right into the spirit of things at the
start of the second session -- once he'd found stronger tape for his
left shoe. On his second night in Russia, he was drinking wine on the
roof of St. Isaac's Cathedral.
"This isn't the kind of thing you do with a tour group," Feinberg
said.
Feinberg's program costs were defrayed by a prize from Fence
magazine, which runs a writing contest whose first prize is a full
scholarship to SLS. Students without prizes or scholarships pay
$1,750 for a single two-week session or $2,350 for both.
At a seminar titled "Untranslatable Russia," Oxford professor Andrei
Zorin discussed Russian cultural phenomena that often baffle
foreigners. His students seemed eager to show their familiarity with
the Slavic soul. One introduced herself as "probably the biggest
Yesenin fan in North America." When the next student called herself
"the biggest Nabokov fan in North America," a third said, "Don't be
so sure."
According to Iossel, the program is drawing an increasing number of
students who return year after year -- in part because the
strangeness of the city only grows as students come to know it.
"St. Petersburg is a place that never lets you get too close," Iossel
said. "I lived here for 30 years and I still feel that way." [14]
Natasha Danchenkova / For MT
In 1999, The New Yorker put William Vollmann on its list of the 20
best U.S. writers under 40.
======================================================
[15]
Natasha Danchenkova / For MT
In 1999, The New Yorker put William Vollmann on its list of the 20
best U.S. writers under 40.
The Write Stuff
A St. Petersburg program encourages aspiring U.S. authors to find
themselves by getting lost.
By Stephen Boykewich
Published: July 8, 2005
No matter how carefully the organizers of the St. Petersburg Summer
Literary Seminars had planned, it wasn't long before a young American
poet ran into a problem that no one was ready for. The masking tape
wasn't holding his left shoe together.
It was one of the smaller challenges that faced the 122 aspiring
writers who spent the last four weeks in the spiritual home of Fyodor
Dostoevsky and Alexander Blok. SLS, now in its seventh year, plunges a
group of mostly U.S. students into a deliberately overfull schedule of
workshops, seminars, literary walks and readings. It also plunges them
into the Russian language with nothing but a 90-minute crash course at
the start of each two-week session.
"We just about cover the alphabet," said instructor Maria Guseva.
"But you'd be surprised how quickly people learn to read signs and
find their way around."
They do have plenty of help. A typical weekday during the second
session offered three simultaneous literary walks sandwiched between
a lecture on Russian absurdism and a faculty reading, with bilingual
staff members on hand all the way. But with the elated atmosphere of
the White Nights and the adventurousness of the students, staff
supervision doesn't always end when the officially scheduled day
does.
"There's a fair amount of shepherding students home from bars at 6 in
the morning," said participant liaison Jamie Kembrey.
Kembrey has been both shepherd and sheep, having attended the first
SLS as a student in 1999. Then, he said, it was a very different
program. The 12 students and two faculty members who attended that
year have since grown by a factor of 10, filling the program's
headquarters at the Herzen Inn and a half-dozen small hotels close to
Kazan Cathedral. As the program has grown, it has attracted
ever-brighter literary lights to the faculty: Two U.S. poet laureates
attended in 2004, and U.S. novelist William Vollmann led this year's
pack.
"We're limited at this point by the infrastructure of the city," said
program founder and co-director Mikhail Iossel. The Leningrad-born
Iossel won't consider moving the program out of the city center, as
the experience of getting lost on the streets Pushkin and Gogol
walked is half the reason SLS exists.
"It's a really severe displacement for most students," Iossel said.
"For many it's a life-changing experience. It's a chance to get lost
emotionally in a very findable context."
Poet Daniel Feinberg, 24, got right into the spirit of things at the
start of the second session -- once he'd found stronger tape for his
left shoe. On his second night in Russia, he was drinking wine on the
roof of St. Isaac's Cathedral.
"This isn't the kind of thing you do with a tour group," Feinberg
said.
Feinberg's program costs were defrayed by a prize from Fence
magazine, which runs a writing contest whose first prize is a full
scholarship to SLS. Students without prizes or scholarships pay
$1,750 for a single two-week session or $2,350 for both.
At a seminar titled "Untranslatable Russia," Oxford professor Andrei
Zorin discussed Russian cultural phenomena that often baffle
foreigners. His students seemed eager to show their familiarity with
the Slavic soul. One introduced herself as "probably the biggest
Yesenin fan in North America." When the next student called herself
"the biggest Nabokov fan in North America," a third said, "Don't be
so sure."
According to Iossel, the program is drawing an increasing number of
students who return year after year -- in part because the
strangeness of the city only grows as students come to know it.
"St. Petersburg is a place that never lets you get too close," Iossel
said. "I lived here for 30 years and I still feel that way."
Links:
------
[1] http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/143815/
[2] http://www.sptimes.ru/index.htm
[3] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16234.htm
[4]
http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16234_4910.htm
[5] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16229.htm
[6] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16230.htm
[7] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16231.htm
[8] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16232.htm
[9] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16233.htm
[10] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16235.htm
[11] http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1085/features/a_16236.htm
[12] mailto:letters@sptimesrussia.com?subject=The write stuff
[13] http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/143815/
[14]
http://ad.moscowtimes.ru/cgi-bin/ad/adclick.cgi?gid=29&layout=multi&id=702
[15] http://context.themoscowtimes.com/
----- End forwarded message -----