OLGA LIVSHIN

Selected Essays

 

"Anti-Semitism in Trump's U.S. Deadlier Than in Russia." Newsweek, April 29, 2019
 

Growing up in Moscow in the 80s, anti-Semitism was an everyday background hum. But I would have never thought I would consult with my mom on how to live—and raise a child of my own—in a country where Jews are being killed. The deadliness of violence against Jewish people can and should be countered with bipartisan initiatives. [Read more...]

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"On the Vulnerability of a Strong Poet: Translating Akhmatova’s Female Love." Poetry International, June 29, 2018

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In the West, Anna Akhmatova is known as a powerful voice for poetry of witness. If you are a non-Russian-speaking reader and have read any Akhmatova, you probably read her long, epic, narrative poem Requiem, which captures the collective sorrows of Stalin’s terror from a position both personal and political. But a different Akhmatova exists as well: a delicate, erotically charged, bittersweet voice that is hyper-conscious of her romantic involvement with a woman. [Read more...]

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