October 07, 2010 Raise a Glass to Jerome This week I came across two excellent articles on the Art of Translation, one in the NY Times, the other in the National Post. The NY Times article, written by Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours, raises some fascinating ideas about how writing itself is an act of translation, from the writer's ideas and perception of what his perfect work might be... History Literature Russia File
September 16, 2010 Flying Free... Too often the news we gather from the mainstream media about Russia is bad news, and the humor is rather acerbic and based on dark stereotypes. So it is refreshing when we receive a bit of unqualified good news, about average people doing the hard work it takes to keep a society, and our world, spinning on its axis. Environment Russia File
September 08, 2010 Thoroughbred Post-Horses Alexander Pushkin famously called translators "the post-horses of literature." Well, two thoroughbreds who have worked with us on Russian Life and Chtenia have just been awarded grants from the National Endowment of the Arts to bring some important works to English. First, Anne Fisher, translator of our book, The Little Golden Calf: Literature Russian Life Magazine Russia File
September 04, 2010 Etcetera Russians are wearing less and will have to do with fewer mushrooms this year. President Medvedev is Russia's Internet President (while PM Putin apparently does not even have a cellphone)... Humor Politics Russia File
September 01, 2010 301 Things Everyone Should Know About Russia How do you begin to get a handle on the world's largest country? This colorful, illustrated guide will get you started... Culture History Reference Nonfiction
September 01, 2010 Wearied by the Sun Where we consider Moscow's summer heat wave and its impact on language.
September 01, 2010 Uchites 08 The eighth edition of our Uchites language insert, sponsored by Russkiy Mir Foundation, uses the life and poetry of poet Sergei Yesenin to explore word roots, verb aspects, word endings, the prefix/preposition "po", and more. Two recordings are also available online. Language
September 01, 2010 The Kremlinologist Catechism There is a catechism that dominates American discourse on Russia today, any many of its underlying assumptions are unsupported by facts, figures or statistics.
