Writers

Marina Adamovich

Born: 1958

Quick Study: Marina Adamovich is editor-in-chief of Novyi Zhurnal, a Russian-language literary journal published in the U.S.

The Adamovich File: Marina Adamovich, a journalist by education, has served as editor-in-chief of the quarterly Novyi Zhurnal (The New Review), a storied émigré journal based in New York, since 2005. The New Review publishes contemporary and classic poetry and a broad selection of prose, including fiction and nonfiction pieces about history, language, and literature. Adamovich has written essays and critical pieces for other “thick” Russian journals, including Kontinent, Novyi mir, and Znamia.

Psssst………: Adamovich said in an interview that New Review’s goal was established in its first issue, in 1942, as, “Russia. Freedom. Emigration,” adding that, “Nothing has changed” but noting a bit later that, in a globalized world, emigration and immigration have shifted to migration. New Review was forbidden in the Soviet Union.

Adamovich’s Places: Born in Lvov. Lived in Moscow, where she studied journalism at Moscow State University before emigrating. The New Review is based in New York.

Adamovich on Adamovich: Adamovich says she left Moscow as a “formed person. The people who surrounded me when I was growing up—I was an ordinary Soviet child—made me who I am. Daniil Andreev’s widow, Alla Aleksandrovna, was a very close friend in my youth.”

On Writing: When asked in an interview about the role of literature, Adamovich said it is to “carry light. We’ve preserved the tradition of classical Russian literature, with its relationship to the word, in its nearly religious meaning: the word as light, as truth.”

Adamovich Recommends: In a 2009 interview with Radio Liberty, Adamovich mentioned Vladimir Gandelsman and Bakhyt Kenzheev as émigré authors (then “new”) that she found especially interesting. She also recommends Sasha Steisin, Boris Khazanov, and Nikolai Bokov. 


More on Adamovich

Marina Adamovich on The New Review:  

We’ve preserved the tradition of classical Russian literature, with its relationship to the word, in its nearly religious meaning: the word as light, as truth.

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