Nina Kossman (Нина Косман)
BornMoscow
OccupationAuthor
LanguageEnglish, Russian
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma materBennington
GenreHistorical Fiction, Migrant Literature, Immigration in Literature, Immigrant Literature, Bilingual Poetry, Russian poetry, Jewish Literature

Nina Kossman (Russian: Нина Косман [Kosman]; born in Moscow, USSR) is a bilingual Russian-American author, short story writer, poet, memoirist, playwright, translator of Russian poetry, editor, and artist.

Life and career

Nina Kossman was born in Moscow, emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1972. She resides in New York. She has authored, edited, translated, or both edited and translated more than nine books in English and Russian. She is the recipient of an NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) fellowship [1][2] and grants from the Foundation for Hellenic Culture and the Onassis Public Benefit Foundation.[3][4] Her work has been translated from English into French;[5][6][7] Russian;[8][9][10] Spanish;[11][12][13][14] Hebrew;[15][16][17] Persian;[18] Chinese;[19] Italian;[20][21][22] Bulgarian;[23][24] Danish;[25] Albanian,[26][27] Greek, and Dutch, while Behind the Border, her book of short stories about her childhood in the Soviet Union, has been translated into Japanese.[28] In addition to writing in English (her second language), she writes poetry and prose in her first language, Russian, and has an extensive list of publications in major Russian-language journals, in and outside of Russia.[29] In 2021, she became the founding editor of EastWest Literary Forum, a bilingual literary magazine, published in Russian & English.

Literary critic Cynthia Haven writes in The Book Haven, in her review of Kossman's book “Other Shepherds": “Twenty years ago, critic Harold Bloom wrote to the young poet Nina Kossman to tell her that her “intensely eloquent” translations of the poet Marina Tsvetaeva manage to “capture the doom-eager splendor of a superbly gifted poet.” W.S. Merwin wrote that these are “direct, strong, audible translations,” adding, “I hear Tsvetaeva’s voice, more of it, and in a new pitch, which makes something clear in her poems that I had only guessed at".[30]

Poet and literary critic Emma Lee writes in her review of Kossman's book “Other Shepherds": “Nina Kossman was born in Russia and is bilingual in Russian and English. Initially, she wrote in Russian because ‘English was the language I had to use in the outside world—at school, in the city, etc. Instead, my poems sprang from the interior world, and at that age, I resisted the outside world and created—possibly at the expense of a comfortable co-existence with my peers—a world of my own.’ The themes of alienation in Marina Tsvetaeva's poems spoke to Kossman's experience.” [31]

Canadian culture and literary critic Donald  Brackett writes about Kossman in his review of her book published in Critics at Large: “Alienation and nostalgia are, of course, the bread and butter of most exiles, but in the case of Kossman, displaced in America during its own time of social and political upheaval (one hauntingly like our own era today), those emotional states, shared by the older poet, were intangibles that could potentially damage or even destroy a person if they gave in to them without resistance but which could, as Tsvetaeva herself so clearly demonstrated in a model manner, also transform themselves into the raw material for the art of poetry. Initially, consumed by and consuming what she called this “cocktail of nostalgia, alienation, and immersion in Tsvetaeva” enabled Kossman to embark upon the writing of her own poems, initially in Russian despite the fact that she was now living in English.” [32]

Russian literary critic and poet Daniil Chkonia writes in his introduction to Kossman's poems in Emigrantskaya Lira, a major Russian poetry journal: "Nina Kossman's poems … combine ancient Greek myths with modern sensibility…She skillfully interweaves historical/cultural layers with events of our time, creating her own picture of life, in its continuity and unity."[33] 

Aleksey Sinitsyn, a Russian literary critic and novelist, writes in his review of the Russian edition of Kossman's novel: “...this is intellectual prose of outstanding artistic merit [...] The author manages to show subtleties of communication between the individual and the collective, the factual and the mythological, the historical and the personal, and to demonstrate the connection that makes the fate of an individual inseparable from the fate of her people."[34]

Another Russian critic, Olga Bugoslavskaya, writes in her review of Kossman's novel "Queen of the Jews": “…our former compatriot Nina Kossman offers her own version of a love story, set against a backdrop of animosity. ... Her novel… is poetic, beautiful and stylistically original. It rehabilitates the concept of the literary use of ideology and points out a fatal mistake we all make when we begin to rely on common cliches, averting our eyes from reality.”  [35]

Early life and family

Nina Kossman emigrated from the Soviet Union with her family in 1972 and came to the US in 1973.  Her father, Leonid Kossman, was a notable linguist, philologist, author of textbooks on German phraseology and English usage and grammar for Russian speakers, and journalist, who had emigrated from Russia twice (in 1918 and 1972). He managed to leave Riga (Latvia) three days before the occupation of Latvia by the Nazi army. All the remaining members of his family, including his wife (Teresa Jacobi) and mother (Ruth Brenson), perished in the Holocaust in Riga. Nina Kossman's maternal grandfather was killed by Stalinists during the Great Terror;[36][37] his wife, Nina Kossman's maternal grandmother, was sentenced to a term in a GULAG camp as "a member of a family of an enemy of the people".[38] Nina Kossman's mother, Maya Borisovna Shternberg, was a notable biologist,[39][40][41] whose career was cut down by Lysenkoism. Her paternal great-grandfather was Isidor Brenson, a notable physician and historian of Baltic medicine.[42][43][44]

Selected bibliography

Books

  • Poem of the End: Six Narrative Poems. Marina Tsvetaeva. Translated by Nina Kossman. Swindon, UK: Shearsman Books, 2021.
  • “Other Shepherds” a book of original poems by Nina Kossman and translations of Marina Tsvetaeva's poems. New York: Poets & Traitors Press, 2020.
  • "Queen of the Jews", a novel [NL Herzenberg, Nina Kossman's pen name]. London: Philistine Press, 2015. 2017. In Russian translation –Нина Косман. “Царица иудейская”. Moscow: Рипол / Ripol, 2019.
  • "Gods and Mortals: Modern Poems on Classical Myths" anthology (editor). New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  • “Behind the Border” New York: William Morrow, 1994. New York: HarperCollins, 1994 (hardcover), 1996.
  • "Behind the Border" in Japanese. Tokyo: Asunaro Shobo, 1994.
  • Poem of the End: Selected and Narrative Lyrical Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva. Translated by Nina Kossman. Ann Arbor: Ardis Publishers, 1998. New York: Overlook Press, 2004. New York: Abrams Press, 2009. Poem of the End: Six Narrative Poems. New York: Shearsman Books, 2021.
  • По правую руку сна. Po Pravuiu ruku sna. Poems in Russian. Philadelphia: Побережье (Poberezh’e), 1996.
  • In the Inmost Hour Soul. Vox Humana. Selected poems by Marina Tsvetaeva. Translated by Nina Kossman. Clifton: Humana Press, 1989.
  • Перебои (Pereboi), Poems in Russian and English. Художественная литература, 1990. Нина Косман (Коссман) Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya Literatura, 1990.

Selected Poems in Anthologies

  • English translation of Kossman's poem "Like Lambs" (tr. by Mary Jane White) in "101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millenium", anthology ed. Nancy Carlson & M. Silverman. Ashland Press, 2020.
  • Five poems in Russian Women Poets. Modern Poetry in Translation
  • Poems. An Anthology of Contemporary Russian Women Poets. Edited by Daniel Weissbort and Valentina Polukhina. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, 2005
  • Russian Women Poets, Modern Poetry in Translation, No. 20, King's College, London, 2002
  • Four poems in Modern Poems on Classical Myths, an anthology of modern poetry based on classical mythology. Oxford University Press. New York, 2001.
  • Poems in Nuestra Voz / Our Voice, Anthologia del Comite de Escritoras del PEN Club Internacional, Salta, Argentina, 2001.
  • Two poems in the anthology "The Gospels in Our Image". New York / San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1995.
  • Two poems in International Women Poets Anthology, LIPS, 1993.

Selected Poetry in Literary Journals

  • "Ismul, the Boy Warrior",[45] Orpheus,[46] Agamemnon's Shadow Speaks[47] in Carmina Magazine, September 2021.
  • Three Poems Trafika Europe/European Literature Network
  • Poems in Fictional Cafe
  • Poems in Vox Populi. 2021
  • Poems in Vox Populi  2021  
  • Poems in Vox Populi  
  • Poems in Vox Populi  
  • "One by One" in Another Chicago Magazine, 2021.
  • Poems in The Cafe Review, Winter 2021 issue.
  • Long Poem in Среда Moscow, Russia, 2020
  • Four poems in Среда Moscow, Russia, 2020
  • Poems in Word City Lit
  • Texts in Eratio Postmodern Poetry
  • “Flock” in Ekphrastic Review. 2020
  • Poems in The Classical Outlook, Volume 95, Number 1.
  • "Empty Rock" Seven poems in Live Encounters (January 2020).
  •  “See how they watch you” Seven poems in Live Encounters (December 2019).
  • "Lament for Odysseus" Six poems in Live Encounters (September 2019)
  • “Forever and Ever”, “ Show Cooled”, and “As I Pass Your Jail Door” in Unlikely Stories.
  • A cycle of poems in “Why NiCHT?”, a trilingual literary journal (Vienna, Austria). #7, Spring 2018.
  • “Shape of a Whisper” in Contemporary Verse 2. The Canadian Journal of Poetry and Critical Thinking, vol. 38, issue 4. Spring 2016.
  • “Ismul the Boy Warrior” in Modern Poetry Review. Issue 2, March 2015.
  • Four poems in Gods and Mortals: Modern Poems on Classical Myths. Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford, 2001.
  • Two poems in Virginia Quarterly Review, vol.72, Number 2, 1996.
  • Poems in The Connecticut Poetry Review, Volume 14, number 1, 1995.
  • Poems in Prairie Schooner, Volume 70, Number 3, Fall 1996.
  • Two poems in Quarterly West, No. 40, Summer 1995.
  • Poems in Orbis, no. 89/90, Summer / Autumn 1993, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK.
  • Two poems in International Women Poets Anthology, LIPS, Issue 17, 1993.
  • Poems in The New Renaissance, Vol. VIII, No.2, 1989.
  • Poems in Southern Humanities Review, Spring 1986.

Selected Short Stories in Literary Magazines

  • "How I Tried to Unite the Parts of my Soul" in Asymptote
  • “Sophie Choice and What I Understood about Profanation”Litro
  • Three parables in Cassandra Voices (Ireland)

Plays

  • “Foreign Gifts in Asymptote
  • “Водные процедуры” in Этажи (Etazhi)
  • "Foreign Gifts"" in Off the Wall Plays.
  • Women Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2000. Smith and Kraus, 2001.
  • “Mirror” was produced by (among others) Moonlit Wings Productions, Washington D.C., Pag Bol Productions, Ferny Grove State School, Queensland, Australia, 2018, etc.
  • Monologues in "221 One-Minute Monologues for Women" Edited by Capecci and Ziegler Aston.
  • “Foreign Gifts” was performed by “Global Female Voices”, London, April 2018; by The Ventura Court Theatre, Studio City, CA, March 1998.
  • “Foreign Gifts” was produced by Theatre Arts Department, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, VA, in 2017.
  • One-act plays (From Russia with Gum, The Road to City Hall, Miracles) were produced by The Theatre Studio, 1997–1998; “Miracles” was produced in New York, New Jersey, and London.

Art

Selected Exhibitions

  • Dreamscapes (2011)
  • The World According to Deer (2012)
  • Ancient Gods in Painting (2013)
  • Metamorphosis of Soul (2017)
  • Ita Est (2018)
  • Paintings of Rebirth (2018)
  • Dreams of a Refugee (2019)

References

  1. ↑ "Literature Fellowships". www.arts.gov. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  2. ↑ Ball, Don (December 2008). NEA Literature Fellowships: 40 Years of Supporting American Writers. DIANE Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4379-0732-2.
  3. ↑ Kossman, Nina, ed. (2001-03-22). Gods and Mortals: Modern Poems on Classical Myths. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195133412.
  4. ↑ Kossman, Nina (2001). Gods and Mortals: Modern Poems on Classical Myths. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195133417.
  5. ↑ Kossman, Nina. "Eurolitkrant". eurolitkrant.com. Archived from the original on 2022-09-29. Retrieved 2021-09-24.
  6. ↑ Nina, Kossman (2021-05-03). "Six poèmes de Nina Kossman (Etats-Unis)". Recours au poème (in French). Archived from the original on 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  7. ↑ Kossman, Nina. "La revanche d'un élève". Eurolikrant. Archived from the original on 2023-02-03.
  8. ↑ Kossman, Nina. "Между пением и тишиной — Интерпоэзия". interpoezia.org. Archived from the original on 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2021-09-24.
  9. ↑ "Нина Косман. ДОЛИНА ЗАКРЫТЫХ ГЛАЗ". Лиterraтура. Электронный литературный журнал. Archived from the original on 2022-12-13. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  10. ↑ Kossman, Nina. "Стихотворения — Артикуляция" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2022-12-29. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  11. ↑ Kossman, Nina (2021-05-19). "Poesía internacional: Nina Kossman (Rusia/Estados Unidos)". Revista Kametsa (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 2022-09-29. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  12. ↑ Kossman, Nina. "66. POESÍA RUSA. NINA KOSSMAN". www.nuevayorkpoetryreview.com (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  13. ↑ Kossman, Nina. "No hay mejor regalo que la soledad". Archived from the original on 2022-10-15. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  14. ↑ Kossman, Nina (2022-06-13). "LOS APACHES Y EL POETA. NINA KOSSMAN". Ablucionistas (in Mexican Spanish). Archived from the original on 2022-09-29. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  15. ↑ Kossman, Nina (11 November 2020). "וּבְעִבְרִית | עמק העיניים העצומות". הספרנים (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  16. ↑ רופין, דפנה (2022-06-02). "קופסת פח". סלונט (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  17. ↑ רופין, דפנה. "הצלחת". סלונט (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on 2022-09-29. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  18. ↑ Kossman, Nina. "شعری از نینا کوسمان ترجمه ی رُزا جمالی". پیاده رو (in Persian). Archived from the original on 2022-12-29. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  19. ↑ 野鬼Diablo. "[美国]妮娜•科斯曼 诗行（外五首）[英汉对照,童天鉴日 译]". Mp.weixin.qq.com. Archived from the original on 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
  20. ↑ Kossman, Nina. "settembre 2022 – Un'anima e tre ali – Il blog di Paolo Statuti". Un'anima e tre ali – Il blog di Paolo Statuti (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2022-09-29. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  21. ↑ Kossman, Nina. "Nina Kossman. Poems with Italian translations by Laura Klinkon". EastWest Literary Forum. Archived from the original on 2023-01-15. Retrieved 2023-01-15.
  22. ↑ Kossman, Nina (2023-01-27). "babi-yar-di-nina-kossman-trad-paolo-statuti". Archived from the original on 2023-02-09. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  23. ↑ Kossman, Nina (2021-12-15). "ФЛАШ ЗОНА БГ". ФЛАШ ЗОНА БГ (in Bulgarian). Archived from the original on 2022-09-29. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  24. ↑ Kossman, Nina (2022-03-17). "Бомбата каза". ФЛАШ ЗОНА БГ (in Bulgarian). Archived from the original on 2022-09-29. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  25. ↑ Kossman, Nina (2016-08-12). "A bomb said to a city. by Nina Kossman. In Danish by Farzaneh Dorri". FARZANEH DORRI (in Danish). Archived from the original on 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2021-09-24.
  26. ↑ Kossman, Nina (2022-04-14). "BISEDA ME NJË BOMBË". Telegrafi (in Albanian). Archived from the original on 2022-09-29. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  27. ↑ Kossman, Nina (2022-04-15). "Nina Kossman: Edhe një gjë tjetër për luftën". ObserverKult. Archived from the original on 2022-09-29. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  28. ↑ Kossman, Nina. "レーニンよりママが好き！". www.bookoffonline.co.jp (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2023-01-15. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  29. ↑ "Нина Косман — Журнальный зал". magazines.gorky.media. Archived from the original on 2023-01-15.
  30. ↑ Haven, Cynthia L. "Do Nina Kossman's new translations of Tsvetaeva capture her "doom-eager splendor"? See what you think". The Book Haven. Archived from the original on 2022-10-15. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  31. ↑ Lee, Emma (2021-01-06). ""Other Shepherds" Nina Kossman (Poets & Traitors Press) – book review". Emma Lee's Blog. Archived from the original on 2022-10-15. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  32. ↑ Brackett, Donald. "Found in Translation: Across a Bridge of Words". Critics at Large. Archived from the original on 2022-10-15. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  33. ↑ "Эмигрантская лира – 2019-2-1". emliramagazine. Archived from the original on 2022-12-13. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  34. ↑ Sinitsyn, Aleksey. "Роман "Царица иудейская", рецензия | БЛОГ ПЕРЕМЕН. Peremeny.Ru". www.peremeny.ru. Archived from the original on 2019-11-03. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  35. ↑ Olga, Boguslavskaya. "Мёртвые фантомы против живой жизни — Артикуляция". Articulation Project (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2020-05-01. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  36. ↑ Bennetts, Marc (2015-09-08). "A Drive to Remember Stalin's Victims Is Being Threatened by Putin's Push to Revise History". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 2015-09-08. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  37. ↑ Sneider, Noah (17 November 2015). "Remembering the Soviet Union's Disappeared". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 2015-11-30.
  38. ↑ "Штернберг (Кокель) Евгения Яковлевна". Бессмертный барак (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2023-01-15. Retrieved 2022-08-15.
  39. ↑ "The Possible Participation of Growth Stimulants and Nucleic Acids in the Mechanism of the Action of Phytochrome". 1967.
  40. ↑ "Устная история – Штернберг М. Б." oralhistory.ru. Archived from the original on 2023-01-15. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  41. ↑ "Ценность научной истины: локальная история | ИПЭЭ РАН". sev-in.ru. Archived from the original on 2023-01-15. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  42. ↑ Kossman, Leonid (2016-01-15). "Леонид Косман. Воспоминания". berkovich-zametki.com. Archived from the original on 2022-09-25. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  43. ↑ Isidor, Brenson (2016-02-12). "Исидор Бренсон. Очерки моей жизни". berkovich-zametki.com. Archived from the original on 2023-01-15. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  44. ↑ Brenson, Isidor. "Исидор Бренсон. Очерки моей жизни". berkovich-zametki.com. Archived from the original on 2023-01-15. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  45. ↑ Kossman, Nina. "Ismul, the Boy Warrior by Nina Kossman | Sept 2021 | Carmina Magazine". carminamagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2022-12-13. Retrieved 2021-10-27.
  46. ↑ Kossman, Nina. "Orpheus by Nina Kossman | Sept 2021 | Carmina Magazine". carminamagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2022-12-13. Retrieved 2021-10-27.
  47. ↑ Kossman, Nina. "Agamemnon's Shadow Speaks by Nina Kossman | Sept 2021 | Carmina Magazine". carminamagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2022-12-13. Retrieved 2021-10-27.
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