Dmitry Bykov

For other uses, see Dmitry Vyacheslavovich Bykov.

Dmitry Bykov
Dmitry Bykov in 2006
Born	Dmitry Lvovich Zilbeltrud (1967-12-20) December 20, 1967
Occupation	Poet, journalist
Genre	Belles-lettres, documentary prose

Dmitry Lvovich Bykov (Russian: Дми́трий Льво́вич Бы́ков, IPA: [ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ˈlʲvovʲɪtɕ ˈbɨkəf] ^ⓘ; b. 20 December 1967) is a Russian writer, poet and journalist. He is also known as biographer of Boris Pasternak, Bulat Okudzhava and Vladimir Mayakovsky.

Being one of the most prolific modern Russian writers, in recent years he has gained additional recognition for his biography of Boris Pasternak, published in 2005. The biography earned Bykov the 2006 National Bestseller (Russian: Национальный бестселлер) and Great Book (Russian: Большая Книга) awards. He later wrote biographies of Maksim Gorky, Bulat Okudzhava and Vladimir Mayakovsky.

As a journalist and critic, Bykov has been writing for the magazine Ogoniok since 1993. He has also periodically hosted a show on the radio station Echo of Moscow, running at least until early 2008. Earlier, he was one of the hosts of an influential TV show Vremechko.

In 2008 a documentary called Virginity (Russian: Девственность) was released in which Bykov was a co-writer.

In 2009, Bykov was named assistant editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Profile. He is also the editor-in-chief of the monthly literature-focused magazine What to read ("Что читать").

Together with actor Mikhail Yefremov, he created project "Citizen Poet" (a pun on Nikolai Nekrasov's poem "Poet and Citizen"). Yefremov reads poems, written by Bykov, which are usually satirical comments on the contemporary Russian society, politics and culture. Each poems parodies the style of a famous poet of the past, e.g. Pushkin, Nekrasov, Kipling, among others. It was originally broadcast on Dozhd TV channel, but the project was closed because the poems were too critical towards Russian government. Currently, the show is hosted in audio format by Echo of Moscow radio station.

Bibliography

Dmitry Bykov

Prose fiction

• Justification («Оправдание», 2001)
• Orthography («Орфография», 2003)
• In the World of Animals: A Children's Book for Adults, An Adults' Book for Children, with Irina Luk'ianova («В мире животиков. Детская книга для взрослых, взрослая книга для детей», 2005)
• How Putin Became President of the USA: New Russian Fairy Tales («Как Путин стал президентом США: новые русские сказки», 2005)
• Truth, with Maksim Chertanov («Правда», 2005)
• Removal Service («Эвакуатор», 2005)
• ZhD («ЖД», 2006)
• Listed out («Списанные», 2008)

Biographies

• Boris Pasternak («Борис Пастернак», 2005)
• Was Gorky real? («Был ли Горький?», 2008)
• Bulat Okudzhava («Булат Окуджава», 2009)

Books of essays

• The Debauchery of Work («Блуд труда», 2003)
• Chronicles of Immediate War («Хроники ближайшей войны», 2005)
• In Place of Life («Вместо жизни», 2006)
• In a Void («На пустом месте», 2008)

Poetry

• A Letter to a Young Man («Послание к юноше», 1994)
• Military Coup («Военный переворот», 1996)
• Last Time («Последнее время», 2006)
• Chain Letters («Письма счастья», 2007)
• New Chain Letters («Новые письма счастья», 2010)