Skarynkina, Tania

Tania Skarynkina © Alexandra Fevra

Tania Skarynkina, born in 1969 in Smarhon, Belarus, seismographically captures vibrations of everyday life and creates a poetic cosmos of melancholy and irony. She writes her poems in Russian. In her essays, the narrative self confronts the polyphony of the direct speech from her aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and neighbors. Skarynkina’s main concern is to preserve the everyday language of her environment: Belarusian with sprinklings of Polish and Russian, which as a mixed language is often derogatorily ridiculed. Written down by Skarynkina, the disappearing “Smarhoner language” gains form, value and duration. Skarynkina’s poetry has been translated into English, Georgian, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Czech and Japanese.

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