Around the World: Russia, Denmark, Argentina, Mexico

March 23, 2014 • By Jeffrey Zuckerman, Kevin Moss, Pedja Jurisic, Víctor Rodríguez Núñez, Katherine M. Hedeen

In this month’s edition of “Around the World,” a very special tribute to celebrated poet Juan Gelman from two of his close friends: Katherine M. Hedeen and Víctor Rodríguez Núñez. In addition: Kevin Moss considers the status of gay life in Russia in his review of Gay Propaganda: Russia Love Stories; Pedja Jurisic reports from Copenhagen on the rise of teen poet sensation Yahya Hassan, whose rage-fueled poetry has electrified Denmark; and Jeffrey Zuckerman surveys the work and personality of Mario Bellatin, a leading Spanish-language fiction writer who has published dozens of novellas.

“Juan Gelman or ‘about a truth that didn’t believe in death'” by Katherine M. Hedeen and Víctor Rodríguez Núñez

“All the Rage in Denmark: Yahya Hassan and the Danish Integration Debate” by Pedja Jurisic

“I Sing the Body Prosthetic: On Mario Bellatin’s Mishima’s Illustrated Biography” by Jeffrey Zuckerman

“When Gay Russia Speaks” by Kevin Moss

DISCUSS

Jeffrey Zuckerman

Jeffrey Zuckerman is digital editor of Music & Literature magazine. His writing and translations have appeared in the Yale Daily News Magazine, Best European Fiction, The White Review, 3:AM Magazine, and The Quarterly Conversation. In his free time, he does not listen to music.

LARB CONTRIBUTOR

Kevin Moss

Kevin Moss graduated from Amherst College in 1977 and received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1984, with a dissertation on Olga Freidenberg, who headed the Classics Department at Leningrad University. His translation of Freidenberg's Image and Concept: Mythopoetic Roots of Literature was published in 1997. Interest in Mikhail Bulgakov led to several publications and a website devoted to Bulgakov's Master and Margarita.

Since the early 90s he has studied gay and lesbian culture in Russia and Eastern Europe, and in 1997 he edited the first anthology of gay writing from Russia, Out of the Blue: Russia's Hidden Gay Literature (Gay Sunshine Press). His translations of the work of Evgeny Kharitonov have appeared in several anthologies and journals. Recent publications focus on queer characters in films from former Yugoslavia.

Professor Moss teaches Introduction to Gay and Lesbian Studies in the Women and Gender Studies Program and has also taught Hungarian and Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian. At Middlebury he has also conducted the Middlebury Russian Choir and advised the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance.

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Pedja Jurisic

Pedja Jurisic lives in Copenhagen.

LARB CONTRIBUTOR

Víctor Rodríguez Núñez

Víctor Rodríguez Núñez is one of Cuba’s most outstanding contemporary writers. He has published 30 books of poetry throughout Latin America and Europe, and has received major awards all over the Spanish-speaking world. He divides his time between Gambier, Ohio, where he is a Professor of Spanish at Kenyon College, and Havana, Cuba.

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Katherine M. Hedeen

Katherine M. Hedeen is the NEH Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor of Spanish at Kenyon College. Her latest translations include thaw (Arc Publications, 2013) and Every Good Heart Is a Telescope: Early Poems (Toad Press, 2013), by Víctor Rodríguez Núñez. She edits the Latin American Poetry in Translation Series for Salt Publishing.

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