Russian-language poetry of coronavirus time: CORONAVERSE project launched in the USA

International actual project launched in the USA “CORONAVERSE - verses of coronavirus time”. The name of the project consists of the name of the type of virus (CORONA) and the Latin word VERSE, which means a verse. Its creators collect and publish poetic texts of authors writing in Russian from different countries, which they created during and under the influence of quarantine due to COVID-19.

The project was initiated by the Russian-American publishing house KRiK Publishing House, already known for its international poetry.

One of the project’s ideas is to illustrate how the situation with coronavirus, quarantine, and self-isolation affects creativity. In this case - poetic.

“Poems born at this time speak of the illusory, ephemeral nature of our life, our plans, reasonings and give any composition some material significance and authenticity of existence. In addition, quarantine is depressing and painful, so the materials published under the project can also be presented as a medical history. More truly, diseases from which poetic texts are likely to help heal, ”said the creators of CORONAVERSE Gennady and Rika Katsova.

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The project has already brought together dozens of poets, each of which occupies a worthy place in the modern literary process.

Here is how the famous Russian poet Yuli Gugolev described the composition of the authors of the project: “So different, different from each other, sometimes adhering to opposite points in various fields to such an extent that it is impossible to imagine them sitting side by side on the same literary field.”

Virtual anthology has already united poets from the USA, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Belarus, Moldova, Israel, Canada, France, Germany, Belgium, Turkey and Australia. The list of authors can be viewed here.

The published texts are not only different in style and manner of writing, but also in mood. The collection is constantly updated with new authors and new texts.

Every Thursday, CORONAVERSE organizers hold ZOOM meetings, which are invited by several authors of the project and one expert in the field of culture and literature.

The video part of the project “CORONAVERSE in faces” also spontaneously appeared: the authors independently record videos with one of the poems published on the project, and the organizers put them on project page on facebook.