Alexander Zesin Biography

Svetlana Sachkova on November 20, Alexander Stesin, is already a second book in a year - and it seems that he becomes one of the most noticeable Russian -speaking writers of his generation. Svetlana Sachkova talked with the writer about the fear of death, about how he managed to become a Russian writer, living in America since childhood, and how Joseph Brodsky helped him at one time.

Alexander Stesin works as an oncologist at one of the big hospitals in New York. His book about the everyday life of the American doctor, New York Bypass, which he wrote for ten years, got into the final of the Nose Award. And now, the publishing house “New Literary Review” is published by the “African book”, which includes novels and essays about Africa, notes on African cuisine and translations of African writers.

How did it happen? You first graduate from the university with everyone who wants to get a humanitarian education, and then you are going to a medical one. I entered the university, because after school it was necessary to continue to study. Having already arrived, he found a wonderful department of poetics at the University of Buffalo, where all sorts of celebrities taught.

And from my childhood I sprinkled verses, and at school age, like everyone else, I imagined myself a great poet. But during the time that I studied at Buffalo, I realized that I did not want to professionally engage in writing. All my fellow students were obsessed with the idea of ​​writing a great American novel or a great poem, and this desire was cultivated.

On the one hand, I was also infected with this idea, and on the other, it seemed ridiculous to me, because it went against the surrounding reality. In this artificial literary -centric world, all life consisted of talking about books and literary ambitions. Since my real immigrant experience was still fresh, it all seemed frivolous to me. They did not forbid me anything, always only supported.

Dad I have a mathematician, and mom is an economist. In general, I have a lot of mathematicians in my family, but for this science I did not go with my brains. Apparently, I myself had such an installation. Literature has always been very important for me, but I have never seen myself as a professional writer. My literary abilities seemed very modest to me, and I was afraid to put everything on this card.

Already from Paris, I submitted documents for medical. As a result, medicine very much influenced what I write, although I did not assume this. When I entered the Medical Institute, I told myself that I would never write about my medical experience. It turned out, of course, on the contrary. Did your parents try? I am exaggerating, of course. But, in any case, it seemed to them that it was much more important to perfectly master English.

For example, my mother and I have been talking exclusively in English for many years. So she wants. This can be understood: parents came to America at forty, and for them the question of the opportunity to fit into the new language environment was always sharply, all their forces were thrown into it. But, of course, for a person who came with a child, this question is not worth it: in English, I say, as an American, without an accent, but not because I tried very hard, but simply because I arrived before the end of Pubertat.

But, on the other hand, I was always scared by the possibility that I will forget my previous life. I saw around me people who arrived at a later age, for example, at 14-15 years old, and almost did not speak Russian.

The whole early experience of them seemed to be erased. Once, having gained courage, he sent his poems to Joseph Brodsky. Were you familiar with him? As they say, impudence is the second happiness. It was in M, and Brodsky then taught at the college of Mount Holic. I sent him my youthful experiments to the address of the college, and he responded with kindness of sincere.

We even briefly talked on the phone. And then Marina later introduced me into the circle of Russian -speaking literary party. A year later, I entered the University of Buffalo, where I discovered a library with a wonderful collection of non -certificate poetry of the late Soviet era. All this absolutely turned my world and strengthened me in the desire to write in Russian.

When you are twenty years old, it is important that you are indicated that you can’t do it. At one time, I corresponded with the late Leo Losev, who to this day remains one of my favorite poets. He wrote to me detailed, quite ruthless analysis of my poems, which was unusually valuable. The same a couple of times was done by the beautiful Vladimir Gandelsman.

A little later, I met people with whom I have been friends for half my life, and whose poems I remember all my life by heart. Perhaps these are my main mentors. They can be said to be raised. They and Krili. For me, it was incredibly important to hear their assessment. It supported me very much. There was such an almanac of the “meeting” in Philadelphia, the “new magazine” in New York-this is how my first publications happened.

In Russia, I was first published in the "Star" in or year. Then Bakhyt helped me with the first publication in the New World. Then everything became easier. At twenty years old, everyone writes poetry, because for prose, life experience still needs.In addition, the syllabo-tonic form to which I always gravitated, over three hundred years of its existence, has completely outlived myself.

This was clear at the time when I started my poetic experiments. But then it seemed to me that my personal space in the universe of a traditional verse was not yet trampled. I liked the search for new, uninhabited rhymes, for example. And now those things that I want to formulate and say do not fit into the iambic or in anapest. He himself probably doesn’t remember this, but I remember.

Why do you only work in this genre? I was not going to write prose at all, but then the poems became small for me. I had impressions that I wanted to fix in great detail, and not allegorically, but literally. My first experience in prose was the traverse about a trip to the Popular Urals. I joined the company of acquaintances of ethnographers involved in the study of the genealogy of the Pelym Mansi.

In general, it was a very bright trip, but writing a poem about her would be completely absurd. Then my internship happened in the Southern Bronx. This was my first experience of clinical practice and generally a very important period in my life. Records about him were the first part of the "New York bypass." I did not want to offend anyone - this consideration is always important to me, and I try to do so that people do not recognize themselves.

I never retell the stories of patients, because it is unethical. In the "African book" there are real characters that take place under their own names - for example, well -known African writers. Well, there I just try not to write anything offensive. In general, I think that no literature should be affected by people. And if so, will you participate in it? Firstly, because I know better how I would like it to sound intonationally.

And secondly, because in America people are much easier to offend. For considerations of Polit, I would have changed a lot in the book. Now in English literature there is a fear of cultural appropriation: if you are not a Korean, then God forbid to write about Koreans, and so on. And if I put everything and make everything sterile, then what is the point of writing about it?

And in the "New York Circle" you write about how you are happy to immerse yourself in other people's cultures. Why are it so interesting to you? This is also a consequence of the fact that at the eleven you had to move to a foreign country? When I arrived in America and went to the seventh grade, they did not really understand what to do with me at school. In large cities, where there are many immigrants, there are always programs of English teaching for foreigners in their native language.

But at the school where they sent me, there were no Russians. It would be strange to put me to study English in Spanish, and I had to learn English on my own. In addition, it was necessary to choose another foreign language, and I chose French. But I could not teach him with everyone, since training took place in English. It turned out that I myself taught two languages.

And then I thought: why should I limit myself to the study of one language? And he began to teach others. Who are your close friends? But the problem is that here people are much more mobile, more often move, and the Americans are less to the Russians, it is customary to maintain friendship after life scatter you.