Ust-Kamenogorsk, East Kazakhstan region resident Olga Rastorguyeva was nominated for Poet of the Year by the Russian Writers Union, reported YK-news.kz. She was considered for the Debut of the Year award and has been allowed to publish her poems for free in the Moscow almanac. In total, 800,000 poets submitted their works for consideration to the juried contest.
Olga Rastorguyeva
“It was an honour to see such people as Mark Rozovsky, Lev Prygunov and Stanislav Govorukhin,” Rastorguyeva told YK-news.kz. “They say my poems go well with music. Some time ago, Integral ensemble performed two of my songs. Recently, I sent my poems to Na-Na, Dominic Joker and female singers Jasmin and Ani Lorak. I believe I will hear one of my poems performed by one of the pop stars.”
The Poet of the Year award ceremony took place in the big conference hall of Moscow’s government building. Among the other nominations were humour, children’s literature and lyrics.
The Russian Writers Union is an all-Russian professional public organisation, a creative union open to representatives of all genres and styles.
According to the union’s web site, rossp.ru, its goals are participation in the contemporary literary processes; protection of professional rights and interests of contemporary Russian authors; support for poets, writers, playwrights, essayists, literary critics and translators – all those who are involved in the literary process and strive to maintain and develop the best traditions of Russian literature.
It also works to assist members of the union in the preparation and publication of works – both individual author’s books and collective publications in magazines, collections, anthologies and other publications; promote their advancement in the book market and the Internet; financing the publication of author’s books and literary collections, pamphlets, almanacs and other publications with the help of grants from the grant committee.
The union also supports the authors in the creation and promotion of their own media space for the implementation of comprehensive activities, goals and objectives; holding recitals, seminars, webinars, roundtables, conferences and workshops which provide an opportunity to exchange experiences and allow authors to be directly involved in significant cultural events.
