Anatolij Grinvald

Anatolij Grinvald was born in Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan in 1972, and moved to Germany in 1997. He studied Slav Languages and Literature at the University of Leipzig.

He has published two anthologies of poetry so far, »Die Stadt aus Tinte« (2003; tr.: The city of ink) and »Das Wirkliche« (2005; tr.: The real). His last poem is »Matura«. It appeared in »poet«, the literary magazine of Poetenladen publishers. Grinvald writes his poetry in Russian. He uses traditional poetic forms as well as experimental stylistic means. In his poem »Portfolio« he lists pop stars and historical figures, assigning advertising slogans to them. The characteristic feature of his writing is the appearance of classic artists in a contemporary, and often media-controlled environment. Thus, »Bach begs tourists for tobacco «, while Goethe feels »trapped in the suburban hospital «. In one of the free verses of the short poem »Und abends lasen Tschechow« (tr.: And read Czechov in the evening) a »live broadcast « of the Fall of Man is mentioned. »Matura«, however, has the angry voice of Grinvald’s lyrical Ego protest against the diverse forms of pain – the trauma of war, the suffering of the poet at work, and, last but not least, the monotony of everyday life, the eternal burden of the individual. Pain, that is drowned in alcohol here, like in other poems he has written, but which instead should be a source of growth.

Anatolij Grinvald is also a translator. He lives in Leipzig.

© internationales literaturfestival berlin

Die Stadt aus Tinte
2003

Das Wirkliche
2005