Cover of a book by Elena Kryukova

Kryukova (Blagova) Elena Nikolayevna (born 1956) — poet, prose writer, novelist, cultural studies scholar, and art critic. Lives in Nizhny Novgorod. Author of poetry collections and novels. Her literary interests encompass war and religion, pressing issues of contemporary society, youth and revolution, and the archetypes of the temple and the ancient symbol-sign. Her best-known novels are Yurodivaya, The Shadow of the Arrow, The Empire of Ch, Expulsion from Paradise, Winter War, and Night Carnival.

Biography

Elena Kryukova was born in Samara, on the Volga River. In 1980 she graduated from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in piano and organ, and in 1989 from the poetry department of the Gorky Literary Institute (Moscow), Anatoly Zhigulin's seminar. She has been a member of the Writers' Union of Russia since 1991.

She performed as a pianist and organist. She worked at the Glinka Conservatory, the Irkutsk Opera Theatre, and the Centre of Organ Art in Moscow. She gave concerts in cities across Siberia, in Kyiv, in the Baltic countries, and in France. She edited books and journals at Moscow publishing houses. For a number of years she has been active as a curator and art critic, with numerous art criticism articles and publications in a variety of outlets ranging from newspapers to exhibition catalogues.

At a theatre seminar in 1994, Roman Viktyuk singled out her one-woman play Mother. Liturgy of the Faithful as one of the finest works presented in the seminar (published in the book Blood of the Polish Kings).

Throughout the 1990s she published collections of poems in major literary and arts journals in Russia: Novy Mir (1989, 1993); Druzhba Narodov (1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999); Znamya (Liturgy of the Catechumens, 1993; Vertep, 1998); Sotsium (grand prize of Sotsium-Press, 1995); Neva, Moskva, Yunost, Predlog (Walking on Water, 1999), and other central publications — approximately one hundred publications in all. Curator of major art exhibitions in France and America (jointly with A. Gleizer, 1998–2001). She organised the exhibition Polygraphics. The Imprint of Time, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of GIPP Nizhpoligraf (Nizhny Novgorod, 2002).

Awards and Honours

  • Two inaugural literary prizes named after Boris Kornilov (Nizhny Novgorod, 1990s).
  • First prize in the Literature category for documentary fiction — a novella about the Bach family (weekly Semya, Moscow, 1995).
  • Prize of the Writers' Union of Russia (1995).
  • Prize of Nizhny Novgorod for the poetry collection The Creation of the World (1998).
  • Finalist of the literary prizes Yasnaya Polyana (2004) and the Karamzin Cross (2009).
  • Laureate of the Harmonisation of Cultures Prize (Germany, 2009).
  • Laureate of the Marina Tsvetaeva Prize (2010).
  • Long-listed for the Russian Booker Prize (2010) and the Bunin Prize (2010).

Art Projects

Author and curator of a number of art projects in Russia and abroad: Heavenly Chariot (France, 1995); Queen of the Night Ai-Kagan (France, 2005); Archetype (Russia, 2006); Symbols of the Earth (Germany, 2006); Anaesthesia (Russia, 2007); Valley of the Kings (Russia, 2008), and others. Curator of the International Cultural Movement East–West (since 2004). Director of the Russian-American cultural community Fermata (since 2008).

Her most recent authorial literary projects are Roman-Kino (The Empire of Ch, Winter War, Red Moon, 2007), The Shadow of the Arrow (2009), and The World of the Blessed (Yurodivaya, The Royal Doors, The Yarmarka, 2009).

Books

Poetry collections: Kolokol [The Bell] (Volgo-Vyatka Book Publishing House, 1986); Kupol [The Dome] (Volgo-Vyatka Book Publishing House, 1990); The Creation of the World (Nizhpoligraf, 1998). The book of poetry and prose Blood of the Polish Kings (Moscow, Valon-V, 1993). The poetry collection The Garden of Eden has been published abroad.

Novels: Zoloto [Gold] (Moscow, Labirint-Press, 2001); Yurodivaya (journal Nizhny Novgorod, no. 3, 2001; separate edition — Dyatlov Hills, Nizhny Novgorod); Expulsion from Paradise, The Iron Tulip, The Wine Festival, The Mask, The Doomed Ship, The Bloody Palette, Night Carnival (Tsentrpoligraf publishing house, 2002); Argentine Tango (Tsentrpoligraf publishing house, 2003); Red Moon (Dyatlov Hills, Nizhny Novgorod); Winter War (Dyatlov Hills, Nizhny Novgorod); Leo Constellation (Bikar, Nizhny Novgorod — a book for children, poetry and prose, illustrated by Nizhny Novgorod artist Svetlana Ushkova).

  • The Shadow of the Arrow (Veche, Moscow) — a historical novel about the Civil War in southern Siberia and Mongolia, about Baron Ungern and his Asian Division; an attempt to create a grand epic canvas about people living through a dramatic era.
  • Journey with Casanova (Podvig, Moscow) — a playful novel set in the life of Empress Catherine the Great; the plot is based on Catherine and Prince Potemkin's journey to Crimea in 1787; in Crimea, Catherine and her Ethiopian lady-in-waiting Salome are kidnapped by Giacomo Casanova, and together they sail by ship across the Mediterranean to Venice.
  • Ovid's Notebook (in the almanac Na Urovne Lyubvi [At the Level of Love], SFU, Krasnoyarsk) — a book of poems about love; the image of the great Roman poet Ovid, who died in exile in snowy Scythia, is the central "melody" of the book.
  • Leo Constellation (Bikar, Nizhny Novgorod) — a book for children: a grandfather and grandson travel through the Cosmos, visiting mysterious planets and encountering representatives of another civilisation from a star in the Leo constellation.

Hobbies

Singing (old Russian and émigré romances, Russian songs), mushroom and berry picking (in summer), painting (in winter).

Contact

See Also