Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Yevgeny Yevtushenko was born in Siberia in 1933, and published his first poem at age 16. Since then, he has written 42 books of poetry, 3 novels, 3 political-literary essay books, 2 books of photography, and has made two films. His works have been translated into 72 languages. His first novel, Wild Berries, was a finalist for the 1985 Ritz Paris Hemingway Prize. His was the first voice against Stalinism, which Time magazine noted in 1961 when it put him on the cover for his poem “Babi Yar,” which decried anti-Semitism. He has been involved in Russian politics for many years, including serving as a Member of the Soviet Parliament. He is current vice president of the Russian PEN Center, and is a member of the European Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts. In 1994, he refused Russia’s highest honor, the Order of Friendship Between Peoples, because of the war in Chechnya.

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