Poet and cultural arbiter Ezra Pound once defined literature as “news that stays new.” My teaching hews closely to Pound’s proclamation. I ask students to project themselves into classic texts, pictures, and films, in order to see these worlds from the points of view of their characters, including the author; and thus to understand the characters’ choices in the light of the options available to them. Although I am obsessed with dependence of meaning on historical context, what ultimately renders a work canonical—i.e., not boring—for me is the force with which it escapes preconceived notions, the way it sabotages systems of political dominance (such as morality or utility) to show the tragedy and slapstick of being human.
Eugene Ostashevsky
Clinical Professor
Ph.D. – Stanford University
My main interests lie at the intersection of poetry, philosophy of language, philosophy of math, epistemology, and translation. Unfortunately, such an intersection might not exist.
Preis der Stadt Münster für Internationale Poesie (International Poetry Prize of the city of Muenster), 2018.
Siegfried Unseld Guest Professor, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 2016.
National Translation Award from the American Literary Translators Association, Poetry, 2014.
Best Translated Book Award from Three Percent at the University of Rochester, Poetry, 2014.
DAAD Artists-in Berlin Literature Fellowship for 2013–14.
PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for 2013.
The National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship for Translation Project, 2010.
Poetry
The Pirate Who Does Not Know the Value of Pi. NY: NYRB Poets, 2017
The Life and Opinions of DJ Spinoza. Brooklyn, NY: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2008.
Enter Morris Imposternak, Pursued by Ironies. Brooklyn, NY: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2008.
Iterature. Brooklyn, NY: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2005
Translation and Scholarship
The Fire Horse: Children’s Poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky, Osip Mandelstam, and Daniil Kharms. NY: NYRB Children, 2017.
Arkadii Dragomoshchenko. Endarkenment: Selected Poems. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2014.
Alexander Vvedensky. An Invitation for Me to Think. NY: NYRB Poets, 2013. Winner of National Translation Award, 2014.
OBERIU: An Anthology of Russian Absurdism. Poetry, fiction, and drama by Alexander Vvedensky, Daniil Kharms, Nikolai Zabolotsky, Nikolai Oleinikov, Yakov Druskin and Leonid Lipavsky. Ed.; trans. with Matvei Yankelevich. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2006.
Dmitry Golynko. As It Turned Out. Ed.; trans. with Rebecca Bella. Poetry. Brooklyn, NY: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2008.
Photo credit: Natacha Nisic