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
The great Cynthia Haven weighs in, briefly, on Voloshin’s SIDETRACKED in @thetls.bsky.social! “Brilliantly translated… Voloshin attempts to come to grips with the sweep of the twentieth century, from the Revolution to Pearl Harbor.” @pauldrybooks.bsky.social www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...
They sold their shadows
One of Russia’s lesser-known poets worked as an actor, a waiter, a soldier and a military officer in the years after the Bolshevik Revolution and the
the-tls.com
Great writer, great translator, wise reviewer…
Boris Dralyuk@bdralyuk.bsky.social · yesterdayWhat a perceptive and moving conclusion to @nadyawilliams81.bsky.social’s new review of Andrey Kurkov’s Kyiv Mysteries in @plough.bosky.social… Thank you! @quercusbooks.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social www.plough.com/articles/and...
Can't wait to read these! Thank you to @plough.bsky.social for review by @nadyawilliams81.bsky.social
Boris Dralyuk@bdralyuk.bsky.social · yesterdayWhat a perceptive and moving conclusion to @nadyawilliams81.bsky.social’s new review of Andrey Kurkov’s Kyiv Mysteries in @plough.bosky.social… Thank you! @quercusbooks.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social www.plough.com/articles/and...
What a perceptive and moving conclusion to @nadyawilliams81.bsky.social’s new review of Andrey Kurkov’s Kyiv Mysteries in @plough.bosky.social… Thank you! @quercusbooks.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social www.plough.com/articles/and...
An intriguing review from @bdralyuk.bsky.social of 'The City' by Valerian Pidmohylnyi, translated by Maxim Tarnawsky (Harvard). I remember requesting a copy when it was first announced two years ago. Long forgotten, I'm sure. www.the-tls.com/literature-b...
A novel of Kyiv in the tumultuous 1920s
In the four years since the launch of the full-scale invasion, Russian bullets, bombs, missiles and drones have taken tens of thousands of Ukrainian
the-tls.com
Readers, I implore you, listen to Eric Bies and get yourselves to @pauldrybooks.bsky.social! Voloshin awaits!
Orange County Review of Books@ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 7d agoSIDETRACKED: EXILE IN HOLLYWOOD is "a self-published novella-in-verse composed in rhyming couplets by a White Army officer turned professional background actor." Eric Bies reviews @bdralyuk.bsky.social's marvelous translation of the book (from Paul Dry Books). ocreviewofbooks.org/2026/07/30/s...
To be read at all, much less so appreciatively, is a great privilege… Thank you again, @ocregister.bsky.social!
Orange County Review of Books@ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 7d agoSIDETRACKED: EXILE IN HOLLYWOOD is "a self-published novella-in-verse composed in rhyming couplets by a White Army officer turned professional background actor." Eric Bies reviews @bdralyuk.bsky.social's marvelous translation of the book (from Paul Dry Books). ocreviewofbooks.org/2026/07/30/s...
Missing LA this morning, I posted a brief poem by a fellow Odesa-born émigré, Viktor Rayzman (b. 1934), with whom I must have ridden this very bus route at least once…
Ghost Signs by Boris Dralyuk (Excerpt) A slip of paper laundered in the pocket of an old coat, the ink a blurry bruise; a coil of hair trapped in a shopworn locket— a child’s? a lover’s?—just no telling whose; #SignsOnSunday #ImageAndVerse #SilentSunday #ClassicMono
Linger over that perfect line break in the closing couplet of this poem, or over the rhymes of the second in the link, and you will come to appreciate just how hard this soi-disant “minor poet” has fought to “to be good in his own way.” I love these translations!
Nimrod Journal@nimrodjournal.bsky.social · 4w agoToday our newsletter readers received three pinpoint sharp poems by Javier Salvago, translated from the Spanish by John R. Sesgo. nimrodjournal.substack.com/p/good-in-hi...
"I looked him up. A studio electrician, / for some time he sold beachy curios— / albums of sea moss, moonstones, flying fish wings— / by mail. He never wore a doughboy’s clothes." Read more of Boris Dralyuk's poem "Legion," a meditation on remembering and sacrifice, below!
Legion
BORIS DRALYUK <br> Of C. H. Krumm—Charles Harrison, or Harry— / a single trace remains on Catalina, / so oxidized, so salt-worn I could barely / make out the name. How many must have seen it /…
buff.ly
"It is sad that 'Sidetracked' has gone unnoticed for so long, but this is an appropriate time for it to be published." Robert Chandler on Boris Dralyuk's "Sidetracked: Exiled in Hollywood": https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/sidetracked-exile-hollywood-alexander-voloshin-translation-boris-dralyuk
An Epic of Displacement | Los Angeles Review of Books
Boris Dralyuk’s latest work of translation is Alexander Voloshin’s poetic epic about a Ukrainian exile lost in Hollywood.
lareviewofbooks.org
Instructive story about holding personal subjects at a slight distance in poems. Thomas Hardy wrote this after his cat’s death. Florence, his young love, objected to the line calling the cat the “only friend.” H. assured her that the man was not him, just one in his situation.
I’m in this week’s @thetls.bsky.social, reviewing Maxim Tarnawsky’s translation of a Ukrainian classic, Valerian Pidmohylnyi’s THE CITY (1928), which is a hit in wartime Kyiv—and also offering a little background on the “Executed Renaissance” and Russia’s long war against Ukrainian culture.
Big summer sale thru 7/9 @ @pauldrybooks.bsky.social—home of many great books & Light poets, including @aestallings.bsky.social, @bdralyuk.bsky.social, A.M Juster & Light Ed-in-Chief Melissa Balmain www.pauldrybooks.com @paullander.bsky.social
Home of Paul Dry Books
Paul Dry Books
pauldrybooks.com
Charles Martin, one of my favorite poets, shares a story about his mother’s brush with history. For the other poem, by @azforeman, click through: nimrodjournal.substack.com/p/history-ad...
Nimrod Journal@nimrodjournal.bsky.social · last mo.Today we bring you two portrait sonnets from our Summer 2026 issue. Both depict figures associated with the Soviet Union, the first focusing on an early architect of the state, the second on a major poet who transcended its boundaries. nimrodjournal.substack.com/p/history-ad...
A great pleasure to discover neglected California poet Henri Coulette in this excellent selection from @carcanet.bsky.social , edited by @bdralyuk.bsky.social and Michael Caines #poetry
I can’t call this a review, exactly, although it is surely as careful a reading as my work has ever received. Hard to express what it means to me, this pat on the back from a giant, my teacher, Robert Chandler. lareviewofbooks.org/article/side...
An Epic of Displacement | Los Angeles Review of Books
Boris Dralyuk’s latest work of translation is Alexander Voloshin’s poetic epic about a Ukrainian exile lost in Hollywood.
lareviewofbooks.org
Hachi is brilliant. Don’t miss this chance!
Nimrod Journal@nimrodjournal.bsky.social · 2mo agoThis July we are offering a special opportunity to submit fiction to our journal and receive detailed developmental feedback and line edits from our Managing Editor, Hachi Chuku. See the poster for details and bookmark our Submittable page for July 1st!
Immense gratitude to @bdralyuk.bsky.social for his kindness and generosity. One is almost embarrassed to share such words about one's own work. www.saggingmeniscus.com/catalog/glos... @saggingmeniscus.bsky.social
Eric T. Racher@ericracher.bsky.social · 8mo agoI am terribly pleased to announce that my book of sonnets, Glosses and Ligatures, will be published by Sagging Meniscus Press in the autumn of 2027. @saggingmeniscus.bsky.social
Damn happy to have this poem land in the gorgeous new issue of @nimrodjournal.bsky.social! It's from my next book, The MORPHOLOGIST, which is about reading & death, among other things, forthcoming from Milkweed in 2027. 💀Grateful to editor @bdralyuk.bsky.social & all involved...
Don’t take it from Andrey Kurkov and me, take it from @newyorker.com: “Kolechko is a kind of anti-Poirot … In Kurkov's hands, his efforts offer both serious meditations and page-turning diversion.” @quercusbooks.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social
It would be silly to hope for this odd little book to become a runaway bestseller. If it reaches a handful of people and brings them some measure of pleasure, I would be more than satisfied. When I see a reader’s response like the one I just spotted on Goodreads, I rejoice.
Boris Dralyuk@bdralyuk.bsky.social · 2mo agoI came to Hollywood Forever to pay my respects to Alexander Voloshin, and to tell him—or so I would like to believe—that his work, so long neglected, now has a chance to bring a few sighs and smiles to readers in the language of the country where he rests.
I came to Hollywood Forever to pay my respects to Alexander Voloshin, and to tell him—or so I would like to believe—that his work, so long neglected, now has a chance to bring a few sighs and smiles to readers in the language of the country where he rests.
A great essay by one of my favorite practitioners of the genre, focusing on Ellison’s own extraordinary nonfiction.
Nimrod Journal@nimrodjournal.bsky.social · 2mo agoToday our readers received a piece from our Summer 2026 issue, Clifford Thompson’s essay on Oklahoma’s own Ralph Ellison, whose INVISIBLE MAN is nearing its 75th anniversary. nimrodjournal.substack.com/p/ralph-elli...
