From 2 to 4 June, Ekaterina Strelnikova, a lecturer at the Faculty of Philosophy of VSU and winner of the Isaev Prize, took part in the All-Russian Creative Laboratory for Young Authors in Pskov and Mikhailovskoe. It was attended by 35 poets from all over Russia who had passed a strict selection process.
“We enjoyed the openings of exhibition spaces, poetry plein airs, and workshops led by lecturers from the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute. But most importantly, the poets were given the opportunity to speak. To stand on the same stage where their predecessors (Yevtushenko, Rozhdestvensky, Akhmadulina, and many others) once performed, and to feel: yes, this is you, and this is where you belong, and it is natural,” commented Ekaterina Strelnikova.
The format of the creative laboratory includes several days of “poetic” events, during which the poets perform, present their lyrics, meet with representatives of literary associations, and attend workshops held by masters. This year’s masters are poets, prose writers, and translators, lecturers at the Gorky Literature Institute, and editors of “thick” literary magazines (Igor Bolychev, Mikhail Popov, Aleksandr Toroptsev, Sergey Dmitrienko, Olesya Nikolaeva, and Oksana Liskovaya).
The classes are a discussion of the poetry by the participants.
“This is always a productive format of work if the attitude of sympathy and friendliness dominates. My workshop (held by master Oksana Liskovaya) was exactly like that. It is not the first time that I have participated in such workshops. This time I was very pleased with Oksana Liskovaya’s attention to the technical side of poetry.
From 2 to 4 June, Ekaterina Strelnikova also attended the Days of Pushkin Poetry and Russian Culture.
“Poetry is a living organism, an ongoing process, a thread connecting different periods, places, and people. It was in Mikhailovskoe that it suddenly became almost tangible how strong this thread is, and how strong we are (apparently). The “ghost” of Alexander Pushkin that appeared here and there (in the form of a life-size puppet, in cylinders, in performance art, in the shapes of actors) was embodied to its fullest in the ordinary conversations of the festival guests, who suddenly quoted Eugene Onegin to each other so easily and naturally, as if they had just written these lines themselves,” emphasised Ekaterina Strelnikova.
