Xenia Dyakonova (Russian: Кссения Дьяконова;

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

, 1985) is a Russian poet, literary translator,

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

, and teacher of writing. As a teenager in 1999, she emigrated to Spain with her family and settled in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

Biography

Dyakonova began writing poetry at a young age and appeared on several children's and youth radio and television programs in her hometown of St. Petersburg. In 1999, she emigrated to Spain and settled in Catalonia, where she graduated in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona (official name in ; UB), formerly also known as Central University of Barcelona (), is a public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. With 76,000 students, ...

. Since 2004, she has been a professor of humanities and Russian language and literature at the Writing School. Since 2001, Dyakonova has published numerous selections of poems in St. Petersburg and

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

literary magazines. In 2003, she published her collection of poems (My Life Without Me) in the St. Petersburg publishing house XXI Century, with a foreword by Alexander Kushner, and in 2007, a second book of poems, (Vacation), in the Gelikon-Plius publishing house. Dyakonova's translations from Russian into Catalan include novels, essays, poems, and newspaper articles by various authors, including

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

Anna Politkovskaya Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (; 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russians, Russian investigative journalist who reported on political and social events in Russia, in particular, the Second Chechen War (1999–2005). It was her repor ...

, and Alexander Kushner. From the latter author, she translated ten poems that were published by Café Central in a (pamphlet), after the poet participated in Kosmopolis 2006 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. She has also collaborated with the St. Petersburg State University to translate anthologies of modern Catalan poetry into Russian. Dyakonova and José Mateo Martínez co-translated (Catalogue of comic novelties by Lev Rubinstein) (Zonabook, 2007) from Russian into Spanish. Dyakonova is a translator for different publishing houses such as Laertes or Lleonard Muntaner, as well as for different media in Catalonia.

Selected works

Poetry collections

* 2003, * 2007,

As translator

* 2007, (with José Mateo Martínez)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyakonova, Xenia 1985 births Living people Writers from St. Petersburg, Florida Russian emigrants to Spain 21st-century Russian poets 21st-century Russian translators 21st-century Russian educators 21st-century Russian women educators 21st-century Spanish educators Russian women poets Russian literary critics Russian women literary critics Spanish translators Writing teachers