Sequoia in Bloom

About the Book

Sequoia in Bloom represents the first full-length collection of poet Sasha Nemirovsky’s work to appear in English. This bilingual edition of three-dozen poems, selected from a several-year span of the poet’s recent work, features translations by James Manteith, with contributions from Andrey Kneller. Also included is “Manifesto of Jazz Poetry,” explaining the music-inflected ethos in this book. “Sasha’s poems can sound easy; like songs can, they slide unapologetically between polish and rawness, folkie, jazzy, bluesy, classical, modern, unified by a feel for form, by controlled focus and flow. Yet the poems’ layered pleasures, mirrored in the challenges of translating them, belie the cost of their nuanced naturalness, the care behind the case they make succinctly on myriad levels” (Translator’s Introduction).

About the Author

Sasha Nemirovsky is a Russian poet, writer, high-tech entrepreneur and world citizen, foundationally dedicated, he says, to establishing “jazz poetry” as a style in Russian literature. He is the author of five earlier Russian-language books of poetry and prose. His writing has appeared in numerous publications in the U.S., Germany, Finland and Russia. He currently lives in California. Personal site: www.nomer.us. James Manteith is the translator of Tatyana Apraksina’s California Psalms and many other works by Russian authors. He has also translated two anthologies on the history of Soviet physics. His literary translations have appeared in a variety of publications in Russia and the U.S.