Trafika Europe 13 - Russian Ballet

Trafika Europe 13 becoming an international language and literature. Russian is the world’s eighth most commonly spoken language, and it remains one of the six official languages of the United Nations, with over 140 million citizens and 170 million native speakers worldwide. Being part of the Russian diaspora myself, I felt it fitting that at least a small sliver of the cultural production of Russian America be represented. Pavel Lembersky ’s short story in this issue, “The Death of Samusis,” succinctly illustrates his musicality, how finely attuned his work is to the surreal absurdity of human life (Benjamin’s “profane illumination”) and what I think is perhaps his greatest gift – serious, philosophical, self- reflexive play with narrative modes, the way he explicitly deconstructs the text. Katia Kapovich has now published some ten collections, both poetry and prose, including two prominent books of English language poetry, and is a past winner of the Russia Prize. She is also a co-editor of the acclaimed occasional US literary print anthology series Fulcrum . As her short story we publish here, “Avengers,” exemplifies, The New Sincerity ethos fits her writing to a T.

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