On September 28, in the new literary coworking space in Ulyanovsk, a meeting was held with the poet from Dunedin David Howard, who became the second guest of the international writers' residence under the program "Ulyanovsk - UNESCO City of Literature". The New Zealand author presented a poetic triptych resulting from his work in the city. The guests also heard the music of the composer Sofia Filyanina, written especially for these texts.

After a month of work in the residence, the author of nine books, laureate of several literary awards met with the residents of Ulyanovsk, read his poems, answered the questions of the poet, journalist and moderator of the meeting, Sergei Gogin and guests.

As David Howard said, at the writer's residence in Ulyanovsk, he worked on a poetic triptych. In particular, the author studied the multi-figured composition of the craftsman Alexei Morozov in 1905, shown in the museum of the Ulyanovsk Puppet Theater, and wrote poems inspired by these unique figures. According to the author, he imagined what stories these dolls could tell, and he laid all this in the basis of the first part of the triptych, as well as his feelings from being in Ulyanovsk.

In addition, David Howard got acquainted with the Ulyanovsk period of the life of the scientist Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov and devoted the third part of his triptych to a description of what a meeting between Sakharov and Oblomov could have been. This dialogue became a conversation between a real historical figure and a fictional character, a conversation between a person of action and a person of inaction, the poet explained.

The author also read poems dedicated to famous Russian poets: the music for these texts was written by the Ulyanovsk composer, student of the Moscow Conservatory, laureate of all-Russian competitions, scholarship holder of the President of the Russian Federation Sofia Filyanina.

The translation of the poetic triptych by David Howard was performed by poets from Ulyanovsk - Sergei Gogin and Gala Uzryutova.

As a reminder, working in Ulyanovsk since the beginning of September, David Howard took part in several literary events, including: readings in the Karamzin square on City Day, the opening of the Lipki Young Writers Forum, the English talk club Crossroads, the Literary Trolleybus action, etc. The resident also actively communicated with his colleagues from Ulyanovsk. According to Howard, it was very interesting for him to communicate with museum workers, poets and writers, librarians, artists of the city.

The organization of the writer's residence in Ulyanovsk became possible thanks to the partners: the Stary Simbirsk hotel and Sergey Kuznetsov, the Ulyanovsk branch of Rostelecom, the Ulyanovskelectrotrans municipal unitary enterprise, the Gurman gastronomic market.

Photo - Dmitry Potapov

For reference

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

David Howard is the author of nine books, a member of several international writing residencies, a participant in exhibitions and performances, an editor of various publications, including those dedicated to Russian authors. His work has been translated into European languages, and the book "The Ones Who Keep Quiet" was included in the list of the best books of the year according to the famous New Zealand magazine The New Zealand Listener. Howard's literary awards include the Mid-Career Writers' Award (2009), the University of the South Pacific Poetry Prize (2011), and the Robert Burns Fellowship to the University of Otago (2013). David's biography contains many interesting facts, for example, he worked as a pyrotechnics and special effects inspector at concerts of the Metallica group and the singer Janet Jackson.

Composer Sofya Filyanina - was born in Ulyanovsk in 1998, began writing music at a music school (graduated from the Odessa Art School in the guitar class). Then she graduated from the Ulyanovsk School of Music named after Shadrina in two specialties - music theory and piano. At the school she studied composition in the class of A. Sh. Safina. Now he is a second-year student of the composition department of the Moscow Conservatory, in the class of Professor T.A. Chudova. Laureate of all-Russian competitions, scholarship of the President of the Russian Federation. He writes academic music of various kinds, as well as jazz, pop music and soundtracks.