Chernykh, Natalia Borisovna

She was born in the South Urals, studied in Lviv (1985-1986), and has been living in Moscow since 1987. She worked as a librarian at the A. Gorky Literary Institute , a technician at the Soyuzmultfilm movie studio , and a teacher at Elektrostal secondary school No. 64, where she taught electives on silver age poetry; a translator at Terra Publishing House (Forge Agreement and Scabbard Writings from the Dragon Spear series), a reviewer at AST Publishing House, etc.

In 1990, she made her debut in samizdat with the collection of poems Absolute Life, in 1993 the first official publication of Black's poems took place in the Parisian newspaper Russkaya Mysl . In the mid-1990s adjoined the Babylon Union of Young Writers, publishing in the almanac of the same name , and was a member of the literary group Mesopotamia, participating in its collections; also engaged in book art . In 1996, the first book of Black’s poems, Shelter , was published at ARGO-RISK publishing house, followed by a number of others; Black poetry collections illustrated by his own drawings. Subsequently, Natalia Chernykh's poems were also published in the magazines New World , Air , Volga , © Union of Writers , and others.

In the spring of 2001, Natalia Chernykh became the laureate of the II St. Philaret Competition of Religious Poetry (2001) ^[1] .

Since 1999, Natalia Chernykh also acts as the author of articles and essays on Russian classical and modern literature. Essays about Gogol and Pushkin were published in the newspaper First of September, an essay about Vladislav Khodasevich was published in the almanac of Neighborhood. Articles and reviews about masters of modern poetry - in particular, about Vladimir Aristov ^[2] , Dmitry Vodennikov ^[3] , Stanislav Lvovsky ^[4] , Marianne Heide ^[5] , Anastasia Afanasyeva ^[6] , Tatyana Danilyants ^[7] , Igor Vishnevetsky ^[8] and others - were published in the magazines “Banner” , “New Literary Review” , “ TextOnly ”, “ Homo Legens ”.

Since 2005 - curator of the Internet project "In the Middle of the World", dedicated to contemporary Russian poetry.

In 2008, Chernykh also published a book of essays, “Lessons from Holiness: How to Become Saints,” about which the publicist Boris Kolymagin remarks:

a book can be spoken of as a missionary work. The book introduces into the space of "just Christianity." The narrative focuses on the traditional values ​​of the undivided Church, rather than theological debate and historical untruths. <...> The book leaves a bright impression, despite the fact that the history of holiness is a history of struggle and suffering ^[9] .

Describing Black's book of poems “Quiet Holiday” (2001), critic Lyudmila Vyazmitinova notes that she is characteristic of

Absolutely modern poetics: mostly close to traditional, but free, changing its form after twisting thoughts and moods; insert into the fabric of verse pieces of prose; folk avant-garde motifs; elements of self-irony and centonism - and the author uses all this organically and professionally. But the author’s worldview, based on Orthodoxy, fuses the texts of the book into a single whole, and this is manifested on several levels ^[10]

Igor Vishnevetsky in the preface to the collection "Kamena" (2007) indicates:

Her songwriting is fueled by the poetry of Orthodox life and church canons and akathists, dating back to the theatrical and liturgical action of the Greeks ... ^[11]

Oleg Dark , reviewing this book in the magazine "New World", states:

I’m not at all sure that Chernykh’s poems are for the modern reader (they need almost translation). They are written in another, foreign or otherworldly - on the other side of modernity - language. In this language, which was really very “stuck” with a scarf to the eyebrows, and a long “Orthodox” skirt, and the smell of lamp oil, and the light of a candle in a trembling hand, and lithium from trembling lips (but all this is only the forms that it finds for itself language, but it precedes them, and others are simply impossible for him) - they don’t speak and write in this language, a little popular, a bit medieval (they don’t understand it) ^[12] .

According to critic Kirill Ankudinov ,

Her poems are wonderful. They combined the lessons of two queens of poetry - the White Queen Olga Sedakova and the Black Queen Elena Schwartz ^[13] .

Collections of poems

• " Shelter ." - M.: ARGO-RISK, 1996 .-- 38 p.
• " Residence permits ." - M.: ARGO-RISK, 1997 .-- 34 p.
• " Parental Saturday ." - M.: ARGO-RISK, 1999 .-- 36 p.
• " Quiet holiday ." - M .: ARGO-RISK; Tver: Kolonna, 2002 .-- 65 p.
• " Kamena ". - M.: Publishing House of R. Elinin, 2007 .-- 47 p.
• "Praise to insomnia . " - M.: Center for Contemporary Literature of Vadim of the Month “Russian Gulliver,” 2009. ISBN 978-5-91627-027-3 .

Essays

• "The lessons of holiness." - M .: Eksmo, 2008 .-- 408 p. Circulation 3000 copies. ISBN 978-5-699-30491-2
• "Island of Love: Church Stories." - M .: Eksmo, 2013 .-- 576 p. Circulation 12000 copies. ISBN 978-5-699-59504-4
• "Treasures of the saints." - M .: Eksmo, 2013 .-- 544 p. Circulation 10000 copies. ISBN 978-5-699-64233-5

• Natalia Chernykh on the site " A New Map of Russian Literature "
• Natalia Chernykh in the " Journal Hall "
• Publications on the Eurasian journal portal Megalit .
• Publications on the Halftone website .
• Publication in the "© Writers Union" .
• Natalia Chernykh in the project “Ten Words”
•   - Chernykh, Natalia Borisovna in LiveJournal
• (English) Poem in an English translation from the anthology of Crossing Centuries (inaccessible link)