Writers from Astrakhan and Brest have discussed publishing a joint collection
The N.K. Krupskaya Astrakhan Regional Scientific Library and the M. Gorky Brest Regional Library have held a literary online conference “Astrakhan–Brest”. The event brought together writers from Astrakhan region and Brest Oblast of Republic of Belarus.
Moderators of the meeting included Yury Shcherbakov (Astrakhan Regional Writers’ Union), Tatyana Demidovich (Brest Regional Writers’ Union) and Irina Zhelengovskaya (M. Gorky Brest Regional Library).
The virtual acquaintance between Astrakhan and Brest colleagues took place last year. During the event, participants presented poetry translations. Astrakhan composer Stanislav Malov performed songs based on poems by Belarusian authors Vasily Borisyuk and Mikhail Pozdnyakov, translated into Russian by Astrakhan poet Yury Shcherbakov.
This time, the participants discussed the creation of a joint collection of works by writers from Astrakhan and Brest. Experience in similar projects already exists: in 2025, a book featuring works by authors from Minsk and Astrakhan was published in the capital of Belarus. A proposal was also made to exchange literary delegations between Astrakhan and Brest regions.
Vasily Borisyuk and Irina Morikh (Brest), as well as Boris Sverdlov, Alexey Kazantsev, Olga Grebenshchikova and Oleg Talanov (Astrakhan) read their poems and translations. Astrakhan writers Natalya Lozhnikova and Vitaly Tulaev expressed their readiness to translate prose works by their Belarusian colleagues.
Photo: N.K. Krupskaya Astrakhan Regional Scientific Library, Astrakhan Regional Branch of the Union of Writers of Russia.