Since your research is closely connected with Kazakhstan, you need to understand the situation with language and identity in Kazakhstan. Almaty Writing Residency, your creative initiative, helps a lot in this. Tell me about this project.
I brought the idea of Almaty Writing Residency from the International Writing Program in Iowa. Now it is no longer a project, but a program; we are holding the residency for the third time this year. We – because it would not have worked out with me alone. We are the team of the residency, the Open Literary School of Almaty. And, of course, the long-standing support of the US Diplomatic Mission in Kazakhstan and Chevron. The sum of the components is a contribution to the literary life of the city, if not of the country. Every year we take up acute and actual topics, and the participants then continue the conversation on their own. The professional community and readers know about us, and not only in Kazakhstan, especially since the residency has given rise to several literary initiatives: for example, “Daktil” magazine launched a Kazakh-language section, and The Alma Review blog – the only English-language resource on literature in Kazakhstan – appeared on the criticism map. On the topic of the residency I can talk endlessly…..
This year’s theme was “non-fiction literature and documentary poetry in search of Kazakhstani identity”. The events were held in three languages, and guests included both Kazakhstani scholars and publicists, as well as guests from abroad, albeit online: Polish researcher Krzysztof Hoffman; American poet and translator Christopher Merrill, director of IWP. Indian poet Sonnet Mondal, who visited Almaty in October, was also a guest of the residency.
Even with a fairly successful literary activity, one has to do parallel work. Is this a Kazakhstani problem, or is it the same in Poland?
In Poland, publishers try to make new world literature appear in the state language as soon as possible. Classics are also translated anew, there is a demand. Translators have a lot of work, and writers still have to be something else: an editor, a university lecturer. It is quite possible to live like this in Kazakhstan. That is how I live, book royalties are part of income. Many thanks to my readers and publishers.
With AWR team, 2021
2023 was a big leap in your career in your homeland. You received the state order “Kurmet” as an author and culturologist, two medals of PEN and the post of vice-president, and your novel “Altynshash” was awarded the prize of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan. And all this almost overnight. How do you feel about it – and what do your colleagues say?
For most people it looks like a sudden success, I understand, but I perceive the recognition with a state award adequately. It is a symbolic capital allowing to participate in serious projects, including abroad.
And since we have touched upon the Kazakh PEN club, it is now opening its doors to the news, including younger authors. Poland has its own PEN club. In general, cultural communities there are an example of the work of public professional organizations. I have been a member of the literary translators’ association for several years, and I can say that the work is done without government mediation: if there is a need to promote books, authors collectively participate in fairs; if they need to give master classes at schools, authors agree and go there. Although it is possible to find a common language with the state: in every Polish city there is an institute of urban culture that supports professionally organized projects. Unlike ours, the system is more flexible, and work does not start with a letter to the ministry.
Do your colleagues and students in Poland know about your writing success in your home country? How do they feel about it? Including the fact that you work in Russian.
They know and are happy for me, I work not only in Russian, but also with the Russian language. If from the outside it might seem that these are some far apart areas of activity – no, they are not. Each publication is like another leaf on the same branch, it seems to me.
Yuriy plays Harold Pinter in a “Pinter against Pinter” performance, “Art&Shock” theatre, 2023
And what’s next?
Right now I am mostly working on scientific articles. Cutting emotion from the text is the hardest thing to adjust to if you are used to relying on it! Last fall, Almaty’s “Art&Shock” theater called me to play British playwright Harold Pinter in a performance based on his texts. After such an experience, I am already thinking of writing a script, and I think I could even make a movie.
Yuriy Serebriansky is a Kazakhstani author of Polish origin who writes prose, poetry and translates. He teaches at OLSA and works as an editor for Kazakhstani Polish diaspora magazine “Ałmatyński Kurier Polonijny” and Russian literary magazine “Literratura” (before 2023). His works have been translated into many languages and published in a number of different magazines. Yuriy has been awarded the prize “Russkaya Premia” twice, his book Kazakhstani Fairy Tales was named the best bilingual book for young in 2017.
The Alma Review 