March 29, 2024: OUTSIDE: Russian Poets Abroad Speak | A Reading by Linor Goralik
A conversation with Linor Goralik as part of the poetry series “OUTSIDE: Russian Poets Abroad Speak.” This occasional series, hosted by Polina Barskova, gives a platform to poets who have chosen to leave Russia, poets of different generations, destinations, and orientations. The poets will read in Russian, and available English translations will be shown on screen simultaneously.
The series is organized by Polina Barskova (UC Berkeley) and Catherine Ciepiela (Amherst College) under the aegis of the Amherst Center for Russian Culture.
Linor Goralik is an Israeli poet, writer, and artist who works in Russian, Hebrew and English. Born in Soviet Ukraine in 1975, she immigrated to Israel with her parents at the age of 14. Studied Computer Science and worked as programmer, IT marketing specialist, and later as marketing consultant for 25 years. Moved to Russia in the year 2000 and lived and worked there till 2014, becoming an anti-war activist and a vocal opponent of Putin's regime. Left Russia and returned to Israel in 2014, when Russia occupied Crimea. Goralik is the only Israeli who was proclaimed "a foreign agent" (literally "an enemy of the state") by the Russian government for her anti-war and anti-regime position and writing. She is an Editress-in-Chief of two media banned in Russia: ROAR // Resistance and Opposition Arts Review, and News26 // Russian Politics for Teenagers. In the last few years Goralik has also started writing in Hebrew (her first Hebrew book, "I Think That I Feel", is in its final stages now) and in English (she is completing a novel called Stapler). She earns her living as a jeweller, working with silver and various odd materials, from "desert roses" to sea urchin shells. Her dog Bublik is an adorable little bastard.