Boris Dralyuk
Current City, State, Country
Birth City, State, Country
Biography
Boris Dralyuk is the author of My Hollywood and Other Poems (2022), editor of 1917: Stories and Poems from the Russian Revolution (2016), co-editor of The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry (2015), and translator of volumes by Isaac Babel, Andrey Kurkov, Leo Tolstoy, and other authors. His poems have appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Hudson Review, Raritan Quarterly, The Spectator, Best American Poems 2023, and elsewhere, and his criticism and translations have appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, Granta, and The New Yorker, among other venues.. He is the recipient of a 2024 Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 2022 Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize from the National Book Critics Circle, and the 2020 Kukula Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Book Reviewing from the Washington Monthly. Formerly editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books, he is currently a Tulsa Artist Fellow and teaches in the Department of English and Creative Writing at the University of Tulsa.
What is the relationship between Judaism and/or Jewish culture and your poetry?
My Jewishness colors a number of my poems at the level of language (diction, Yiddish-like syntax), as well as at the level of content (the topics of immigration and assimilation), but it also determines their mood and tone—their blend of humor and mournfulness.
Published Works
Poetry:
My Hollywood and Other Poems (Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2022)
Edited volumes:
Ten Poems from Russia, editor and translator (Nottingham: Candlestick Press, 2018)
1917: Stories and Poems from the Russian Revolution, editor (London: Pushkin Press, 2016)
The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry, co-editor, with Robert Chandler and Irina Mashinski (London: Penguin Classics, 2015)
Translated books and chapbooks:
Andrey Kurkov. The Silver Bone. London: MacLehose Press, 2024. / New York: HarperVia, 2024.
Marjana and Taras Prokhasko. Who Will Make the Snow? New York: Elsewhere Editions, 2023. [Translated with Jennifer Croft.]
Maxim Osipov. Kilometer 101. New York: NYRB Classics, 2022. [Translated with Alex Fleming and Nicolas Pasternak Slater.]
Isaac Babel. Of Sunshine and Bedbugs: Essential Stories. London: Pushkin Press, 2022.
Andrey Kurkov. Grey Bees. London: MacLehose Press, 2020. / Dallas, TX: Deep Vellum, 2022.
Leo Tolstoy. Lives and Deaths: Essential Stories. London: Pushkin Press, 2019.
Maxim Osipov. Rock, Paper, Scissors, and Other Stories. New York: NYRB Classics, 2019. [Translated with Alex Fleming and Anne Marie Jackson.]
Lev Ozerov. Portraits without Frames. New York: NYRB Classics, 2018. / London: Granta, 2018. [Edited with Robert Chandler. Translated with Maria Bloshteyn, Robert Chandler, and Irina Mashinski.]
Mikhail Zoshchenko. Sentimental Tales. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018.
Isaac Babel. Odessa Stories. London: Pushkin Press, 2016.
Andrey Kurkov. The Bickford Fuse. London: MacLehose Press, 2016.
Oleg Woolf. Bessarabian Stamps. Los Angeles, CA: Phoneme Media, 2015.
Isaac Babel. Red Cavalry. London: Pushkin Press, 2014.
Anton Chekhov. The Little Trilogy. San Diego, CA: Calypso Editions, 2014.
Dariusz Sośnicki. The World Shared: Poems. Rochester, N.Y.: BOA Editions, 2014. [Translated and edited with Piotr Florczyk.]
A Slap in the Face: Four Russian Futurist Manifestos. Los Angeles, CA: Insert Blanc Press, 2013.
Polina Barskova. The Zoo in Winter: Selected Poems. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Melville House Publishing, 2011. [Translated and edited with David Stromberg.]
Leo Tolstoy. How Much Land Does a Man Need. Introduction by Brian Evenson. San Diego, CA: Calypso Editions, 2010.
Author Site
Links to Sample Works
The Cortland Review, “Three Martinis”: https://www.cortlandreview.com/issue-92/boris-dralyuk/
Raritan Quarterly, “Dictionary of Omissions” and “Days at the Races”: https://raritanquarterly.rutgers.edu/41-3-dralyuk
The Hudson Review, “Émigré Library” and “Calendars”: https://hudsonreview.com/2022/01/emigre-library-calendars/
Video Reading
Current Title
Education
BA, 2004, University of California, Los Angeles
PhD, 2011, University of California, Los Angeles