Boris Dralyuk
@bdralyuk.bsky.social
My Hollywood & Other Poems (Paul Dry Books); translate Babel, Zoshchenko, Kurkov, et al.; odds & ends @nybooks.com, @thetls.bsky.social, etc.; teach at @utulsa.bsky.social; EiC @nimrodjournal.bsky.social
Pinned
Boris Dralyuk
@bdralyuk.bsky.social
· Sep 5
It feels right to see the faces of so many hopeful and weary, desperate and giddy men just outside the gates of success on the cover of SIDETRACKED. Voloshin’s poignant, funny poem ennobles their dreams and struggles as much as it does his own. Thank you, @pauldrybooks.bsky.social!
Reposted by Boris Dralyuk
"1939 is gone—
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?"
If schadenfreude is pleasure at someone else's misfortune, what is sorrow for what you know 1940 is going to bring to the poet?
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?"
If schadenfreude is pleasure at someone else's misfortune, what is sorrow for what you know 1940 is going to bring to the poet?
“1939 is gone—
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?
War, a raging hurricane…
The whole world has gone insane…”
In an era much like ours, Alexander Voloshin remembers a happier New Year’s Eve:
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?
War, a raging hurricane…
The whole world has gone insane…”
In an era much like ours, Alexander Voloshin remembers a happier New Year’s Eve:
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
January 1, 2026 at 6:46 PM
"1939 is gone—
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?"
If schadenfreude is pleasure at someone else's misfortune, what is sorrow for what you know 1940 is going to bring to the poet?
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?"
If schadenfreude is pleasure at someone else's misfortune, what is sorrow for what you know 1940 is going to bring to the poet?
Reposted by Boris Dralyuk
January 1, 2026 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Boris Dralyuk
My 2025 output: a (humorous) poem about a (serious) documentary about a film about an idiot. www.amazon.com/MAN-GOD-Fitz...
AS MAN IS TO GOD: A Poem on the Making of Werner Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo" (Slow Lightning Lit Publications)
AS MAN IS TO GOD: A Poem on the Making of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo (Slow Lightning Lit Publications) [Nicholls, Andrew] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. AS MAN IS TO GOD: A Poem on the Making of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo (Slow Lightning Lit Publications)
www.amazon.com
December 31, 2025 at 7:22 PM
My 2025 output: a (humorous) poem about a (serious) documentary about a film about an idiot. www.amazon.com/MAN-GOD-Fitz...
Reposted by Boris Dralyuk
“…The case is
that those of us older than forty
are sick at soul.” #sickatsoul
Szczęśliwego nowego roku. Happy new year. Feliz año nuevo.
that those of us older than forty
are sick at soul.” #sickatsoul
Szczęśliwego nowego roku. Happy new year. Feliz año nuevo.
“1939 is gone—
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?
War, a raging hurricane…
The whole world has gone insane…”
In an era much like ours, Alexander Voloshin remembers a happier New Year’s Eve:
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?
War, a raging hurricane…
The whole world has gone insane…”
In an era much like ours, Alexander Voloshin remembers a happier New Year’s Eve:
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
December 31, 2025 at 4:01 PM
“…The case is
that those of us older than forty
are sick at soul.” #sickatsoul
Szczęśliwego nowego roku. Happy new year. Feliz año nuevo.
that those of us older than forty
are sick at soul.” #sickatsoul
Szczęśliwego nowego roku. Happy new year. Feliz año nuevo.
“1939 is gone—
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?
War, a raging hurricane…
The whole world has gone insane…”
In an era much like ours, Alexander Voloshin remembers a happier New Year’s Eve:
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?
War, a raging hurricane…
The whole world has gone insane…”
In an era much like ours, Alexander Voloshin remembers a happier New Year’s Eve:
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
December 31, 2025 at 3:26 PM
“1939 is gone—
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?
War, a raging hurricane…
The whole world has gone insane…”
In an era much like ours, Alexander Voloshin remembers a happier New Year’s Eve:
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?
War, a raging hurricane…
The whole world has gone insane…”
In an era much like ours, Alexander Voloshin remembers a happier New Year’s Eve:
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
Some New Year’s thoughts and memories, not all of them somber, with a helping hand from Alexander Voloshin…
“We only love, only hold dear
the scenes that vanish, disappear . . .
Now at our temples we may find
frost of a rather different kind . . .”
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
“We only love, only hold dear
the scenes that vanish, disappear . . .
Now at our temples we may find
frost of a rather different kind . . .”
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
“Board the Troika of the Past”: Alexander Voloshin Rings in the New Year
The New Year has always been a merry holiday in my family, even in the worst of times. A decade ago, when I was still editing the Los Angeles Review of Books (which celebrates its fifteenth anniver…
bdralyuk.wordpress.com
December 30, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Some New Year’s thoughts and memories, not all of them somber, with a helping hand from Alexander Voloshin…
“We only love, only hold dear
the scenes that vanish, disappear . . .
Now at our temples we may find
frost of a rather different kind . . .”
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
“We only love, only hold dear
the scenes that vanish, disappear . . .
Now at our temples we may find
frost of a rather different kind . . .”
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
Go on over to read my little New Year’s note and, more importantly, Nicholas Pierce’s interview with Erin O’Luanaigh, who writes smashing poems like this:
December 30, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Go on over to read my little New Year’s note and, more importantly, Nicholas Pierce’s interview with Erin O’Luanaigh, who writes smashing poems like this:
While you’re smiling coyly with Duke Ellington, you might consider doing the same with another jazzy Duke—Vernon—whose memoir and poems have just been recommended at “First Things” by the great John Wilson. Do what Wilson says @pauldrybooks.bsky.social!
December 26, 2025 at 7:53 PM
While you’re smiling coyly with Duke Ellington, you might consider doing the same with another jazzy Duke—Vernon—whose memoir and poems have just been recommended at “First Things” by the great John Wilson. Do what Wilson says @pauldrybooks.bsky.social!
Just heard Duke Ellington use a magnificent phrase in a 1974 BBC interview with Stanley Dance. Asked whether he regrets never having received a grant to sit at a university somewhere and compose in peace, he says he has no interest in such a stretch of “ornamental stagnation.”
December 26, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Just heard Duke Ellington use a magnificent phrase in a 1974 BBC interview with Stanley Dance. Asked whether he regrets never having received a grant to sit at a university somewhere and compose in peace, he says he has no interest in such a stretch of “ornamental stagnation.”
I have the softest of spots for poor Ernest Dowson—a spot touched and fortified by this compassionate, finely chiseled little elegy in @teniemi.bsky.social lovely chapbook, “At Night and Other Poems.”
December 23, 2025 at 8:19 PM
I have the softest of spots for poor Ernest Dowson—a spot touched and fortified by this compassionate, finely chiseled little elegy in @teniemi.bsky.social lovely chapbook, “At Night and Other Poems.”
Reposted by Boris Dralyuk
We could not be more excited to read your submissions to our annual literary contests! Please go to our site to learn more (link in bio, URL in the image).
December 22, 2025 at 4:21 PM
We could not be more excited to read your submissions to our annual literary contests! Please go to our site to learn more (link in bio, URL in the image).
Yesterday I had lunch with my dear friend, the poet Gedda Ilves, who was born to Russophone parents in Harbin, China, in 1923. The picture on the right—included in her soon to be widely available memoir, STRANGER’S JOURNEY—was taken 100 years ago. We ate at Hop Li on Pico.
December 16, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Yesterday I had lunch with my dear friend, the poet Gedda Ilves, who was born to Russophone parents in Harbin, China, in 1923. The picture on the right—included in her soon to be widely available memoir, STRANGER’S JOURNEY—was taken 100 years ago. We ate at Hop Li on Pico.
Eighty-five years after his death, Alexander Voloshin is back at the studio gate!
December 11, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Eighty-five years after his death, Alexander Voloshin is back at the studio gate!
Reposted by Boris Dralyuk
Get it while it’s hot
Absolutely! It’s my forthcoming translation, available for preorder here: www.pauldrybooks.com/products/sid...
Sidetracked: Exile in Hollywood
Translation and Introduction by Boris Dralyuk98-page paperback / 5.5" x 8.5" / ISBN 9781589882126Publication Date: 4/21/2026 (available for preorder)The first English translation of a 1953 mock epic o...
www.pauldrybooks.com
December 4, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Get it while it’s hot
The Jewish Canadian poet Eli Mandel (1922-1992), whose work I’ve only recently discovered, was #BOTD. Scornfully, the speaker of this poem accepts his alienation from the polished forms of gentile culture, then offers us a line of supple iambic pentameter. Lithe ironist indeed…
December 3, 2025 at 3:02 PM
The Jewish Canadian poet Eli Mandel (1922-1992), whose work I’ve only recently discovered, was #BOTD. Scornfully, the speaker of this poem accepts his alienation from the polished forms of gentile culture, then offers us a line of supple iambic pentameter. Lithe ironist indeed…
In this poem from the coming Winter 2026 issue of @nimrodjournal.bsky.social, Rachel Hadas turns to Gerard Manley Hopkins, who saw a fallen world and struggled “to make sense / with visionary innocence.”
December 2, 2025 at 4:28 PM
In this poem from the coming Winter 2026 issue of @nimrodjournal.bsky.social, Rachel Hadas turns to Gerard Manley Hopkins, who saw a fallen world and struggled “to make sense / with visionary innocence.”
Sidetracked no more! Alexander Voloshin’s long, lonely wait is nearly over. Thank you, @pauldrybooks.bsky.social!
December 1, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Sidetracked no more! Alexander Voloshin’s long, lonely wait is nearly over. Thank you, @pauldrybooks.bsky.social!
Here Alexander Voloshin describes the plight of refugees in 1930s Europe. Plus ça change…
December 1, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Here Alexander Voloshin describes the plight of refugees in 1930s Europe. Plus ça change…
Happy Thanksgiving—from Alexander Voloshin and me—to all immigrants acquiring new tastes this year! No one knows better the importance of celebrating despite it all.
How my grandmother, who only learned a few words of English, loved “Turkey Day”…
@pauldrybooks.bsky.social
How my grandmother, who only learned a few words of English, loved “Turkey Day”…
@pauldrybooks.bsky.social
November 27, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Happy Thanksgiving—from Alexander Voloshin and me—to all immigrants acquiring new tastes this year! No one knows better the importance of celebrating despite it all.
How my grandmother, who only learned a few words of English, loved “Turkey Day”…
@pauldrybooks.bsky.social
How my grandmother, who only learned a few words of English, loved “Turkey Day”…
@pauldrybooks.bsky.social
I needed a rug cleaned in Tulsa, so I handed the thing off to a local specialist who escaped Communist Hungary on foot in 1969, crossing the Yugoslav border to Trieste. After a year in a refugee camp, he flew to NY. Had $20 to his name. You’ve never met a more grateful American.
November 26, 2025 at 2:45 PM
I needed a rug cleaned in Tulsa, so I handed the thing off to a local specialist who escaped Communist Hungary on foot in 1969, crossing the Yugoslav border to Trieste. After a year in a refugee camp, he flew to NY. Had $20 to his name. You’ve never met a more grateful American.
Tulsans, brave the rain and come downtown to hear Cynthia Cruz! It will be worth it.
Cynthia Cruz is one of the most stimulating poetic voices in the air today. I could not be more excited to hear her read from her new book, SWEET REPETITION (@uchicagopress.bsky.social) in Tulsa on Thursday, Nov. 20. Come out, Oklahomans! www.eventbrite.com/e/sweet-repe...
Sweet Repetition: A Reading by Cynthia Cruz
Eventbrite - Tulsa Artist Fellowship presents Sweet Repetition: A Reading by Cynthia Cruz - Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 205 E Archer St, Tulsa, OK. Find event and ticket information.
www.eventbrite.com
November 20, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Tulsans, brave the rain and come downtown to hear Cynthia Cruz! It will be worth it.
I just learned of the death of Efraín Kristal, whose UCLA courses on Renaissance writing and, especially, on Borges showed me that serious scholarship need not deaden, but can in fact fortify one’s pure-hearted love of literature. As a translator, I found a credo in his work:
November 17, 2025 at 1:06 AM
I just learned of the death of Efraín Kristal, whose UCLA courses on Renaissance writing and, especially, on Borges showed me that serious scholarship need not deaden, but can in fact fortify one’s pure-hearted love of literature. As a translator, I found a credo in his work:
I enjoy every single part of the job @nimrodjournal.bsky.social, but this is certainly a highlight. It is a joy to hear our prize winners read!
If you weren’t able to join us for the 2025 Literary Prize presentation, you can view it here. An inspiring double reading! Our thanks to our winners and judges, including @talianeffson.bsky.social, @nancyjooyounkim.bsky.social, and @randallmann.bsky.social! youtube.com/watch?v=r53p...
2025 Nimrod Literary Awards Reading
YouTube video by Nimrod International Journal
m.youtube.com
November 16, 2025 at 3:09 PM
I enjoy every single part of the job @nimrodjournal.bsky.social, but this is certainly a highlight. It is a joy to hear our prize winners read!
We came to LA as refugees from the USSR in 1991. Life wasn’t easy, but we persevered and, I dare say, came to contribute something of worth to this nation.
Had I experienced the following when I was a boy, I don’t know what would have become of me.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
Had I experienced the following when I was a boy, I don’t know what would have become of me.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
November 14, 2025 at 5:34 PM
We came to LA as refugees from the USSR in 1991. Life wasn’t easy, but we persevered and, I dare say, came to contribute something of worth to this nation.
Had I experienced the following when I was a boy, I don’t know what would have become of me.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
Had I experienced the following when I was a boy, I don’t know what would have become of me.
www.latimes.com/california/s...