Semjon Chanin: Poetry Reading and Seminar
Semjon Chanin reads poems from his book ”Новые разъемы / Nya kontaktdon”, which has recently been published in Swedish by Hyperboreus Publishing. The poetry reading will be followed by a seminar. The event is organized by the research area Literary and Cultural Studies. Welcome!
About the book Nya kontaktdon, published by Hyperboreus (Stockholm, 2025), translated into Swedish by Mikael Nydahl
In Chanin’s poetry (from the text group “Orbita” – Punte, Svetlov, Timofejev, Wallik, Chanin), a concrete and dense reality, with recognizable details from present-day Riga, stands in strange contrast to a dreamlike, ghostly world that seems to exist on the reverse side of reality. Events unfold again and again in absurd scenarios, and the identity of the lyrical “I” is constantly shifting – this (other)side subject is entirely elusive. “Chanin’s poetry explores the ‘danger zones’ of everyday language, where worn-out and familiar expressions no longer convey meaning but instead begin to reshape reality itself” (Kirill Kortchagin).
The collection consists of poems from the past twenty years, but for the author chronology is not so important – this world lends itself easily to transformation, giving the subject a chance to hide. Perhaps that is precisely what he wants? It’s not even worth moving, why did I shout that I was an electrician, where will I live myself then? Well, it’s not so important…
BIO:
Semjon Chanin (real name Aleksandr Zapol, born 1970) is a Russian-language Latvian poet and translator. His poetry collection New Connectors, in Swedish translation by Mikael Nydahl, has just been published by Hyperboreus (Stockholm, 2025).
Chanin translates Latvian and American poetry into Russian and has edited several collections of poems by Russian and Latvian poets. He is the editor of the anthology Latvian/Russian Poetry. Poems in Russian written by Latvian poets (2011), which includes a critical analysis of the material.
Chanin is one of the founders of the multimedia/poetry project Orbita, a creative collective of poets and artists whose works create a dialogue between different cultures and genres (including literature, music, video, and photography).