Ulyanovsk UNESCO City of Literature

June 21, Literary tram drove through Ulyanovsk. For the fourth time, the townspeople traveled around the night city and listened to the texts of writers from the UNESCO literary cities. Many people gathered, and two trams set off on a literary tour.

The event was organized by the "Ulyanovsk - UNESCO City of Literature" direction together with the Culture Department of Ulyanovsk City Administration, "Ulyanovskletrotrans" and the Centralized Library System. Each passenger was given a special Literary Tram ticket.

This year, texts and poems from Utrecht, Barcelona, ​​Melbourne, Nottingham, Ljubljana, Dunedin, Cobourg and Ulyanovsk were read. Passengers heard these fragments performed by Elena Toporkova, Head of the Culture Department of Ulyanovsk City Administration, Dmitry Aksyonov, the head the ENFANT-TERRIBLE theater, Elena Domashevskaya, DARS PR-Director, Anton Nikitin, TV presenter of Russia 1 and Russia 24 in Ulyanovsk. The surprise of the evening - poems of the surrealist poet from the Canadian Cobourg, Stuart Ross, read by the Ulyanovsk Youth theater actress Evgenia Timchenko. In addition, the philologist and editor Natalia Shatskova read the poem of Dunedin poet David Howard, who will be a guest of the writer's residence in Ulyanovsk in September.

Elena Toporkova reads poems by Osip Mandelstam, written in Heidelberg

Dmitry Aksenov reads the Awater poem (by Martinus Nijhoff, the Netherlands)

Elena Domashevskaya reads The Offering poem by Panya Banjoko (Nottingham)

Natalia Shatskova reads First snow, last drink poem by David Howard (Dunedin)  

Anton Nikitin reads Wye river poem by Chris Wallace-Crabbe from Melbourne and an excerpt from the novel La piazza del Diamante by Mercè Rodoreda, Barcelona

Andrej Hocevar (Ljubljana) reads his poems in Slovenian (Russian translation was read by Danila Nozdryakov)

Evgeniya Timchenko reads the poems of Stuart Ross from Cobourg, Canada

Ulyanovsk poets Danila Nozdryakov, Igor Ulitin, Vyacheslav Savin and the poet from Ljubljana Andrej Hocevar were the special guests of the event, Andrej Hocevar is now working at writer's residence in Ulyanovsk, writing his reportage about local literary life. 

Danila Nozdryakov (Ulyanovsk) reads his poems in the Poetry alley

Igor Ulitin (Ulyanovsk) reads his texts in the Literary tram and on the tram stops

Vyacheslav Savin (Ulyanovsk) reads his poem at the final stop of the Literary tram

The passengers of the Literary Tram could also read their poems at the Open Microphone.

Literary tram 2019: the list of the texts

Osip Mandelstam - the poems, written in Heidelberg
Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Melbourne — Wye river poem (translated by Valeriy Firsov)
Martinus Nijhoff, the Netherlands - Awater poem (translated by Irina Michailova and Alexey Purin)
Panya Banjoko, Nottingham - The Offering poem (translated by Valeriy Firsov)
David Howard, Dunedin - First snow, last drink poem (translated by Gala Uzryutova)
Mercè Rodoreda, Barcelona - excerpt from the novel La piazza del Diamante (translated by Valeriy Firsov)
Stuart Ross, Cobourg, Canada - "3", "2, 015" poems (translated by Gala Uzryutova)
Andrej Hocevar, Ljubljana — poems (translated by Zhanna Perkovskaya)
Vyacheslav Savin, Ulyanovsk — poems
Danila Nozdryakov, Ulyanovsk - poems
Igor Ulitin, Ulyanovsk - poems and prose

For information

In 2015, Ulyanovsk received the status of the Most Reading Region of Russia, and also entered the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as a city of literature. Today, the Network unites 180 cities from 72 countries of the world.