GEOGRAPHY
Prochtenie magazine’s special project
It is an online literary magazine that was created for readers who want to navigate freely in the modern literary space. We try to follow the principles of insightful analysis of the work of writers, detailed coverage of events, and a balanced assessment of the literary process.
The magazine's motto is «Lighthouse in the Ocean of Literature». At the moment, this is the only
existing Russian magazine that publishes daily literary reviews.
In 2018 we launched a special project Geography dedicated to lesser-known world literature translated into Russian. In this project we publish longreads that consist of interviews with translators, publishers, critics, and cultural influencers: translators, publishers, critics and cultural traders, are published within the project. Currently there are five pieces published: about Lithuania, Hungary, Germany, Italy, and India. Our plans are to develop this special project more actively, since each article has attracted significant attention.
The structure of the longread includes several thematic blocks about different types of literature: prose, poetry, drama, non-fiction, possibly children's literature, and comics, and graphic novels. The translators talk about the books they’ve worked on. Collected together, stories of this kind create a panoramic view of the meaning of foreign literature. It also shows the depth of literary perception of the Russian-speaking intellectual community, as well as some of its shortcomings. Addressing them becomes a further task for translators and publishers.
There is also a place for specific pieces, for example, a transcript of a panel of translators, who translate Lithuanian works, described by its participants as an “absurd play”. We also publish translations of previously unknown literary texts, especially poems (although several stories have been published for materials about India and Italy, for example). Non-fiction, mostly interviews, is also translated, for example a whole survey of contemporary poets, popular in their homeland, but completely unknown in Russia, was prepared for the material about Hungarian literature.
This project is very important for the magazine and a special section has been created for it. This means that the reflection of each country’s literature will not be limited to one article. Updates will be regularly published for each longread: additional interviews, reviews of literary novelties, which are related to the main topic, and publications of literary translations. We can say that each longread opens a special section about the literature of another country, strengthening international dialogue.
Besides the authors of the texts, editors, proofreaders, designers, programmers, and correspondents of Prochtenie also work on the texts. This is a non-commercial publication, and that’s why we are looking for financial support. It allows us to make large-scale and high quality products. We plan to spend the funds on journalistic work, fees for authors and translators, and on promoting articles on various media. The Hungarian Cultural Center and Biz Moskau have supported the pieces on their respective countries’ literature. Thanks to their support, the articles turned out to be voluminous and rich in translations and other exclusive materials.
Contacts
E-mail: geography.prochtenie@gmail.com
Editor-in-Chief Polina Boyarkina
E-mail: boyarkina@prochtenie.ru
Editor-in-Chief Polina Boyarkina
E-mail: boyarkina@prochtenie.ru
