Russian poetess Maria Stepanova: biography, creativity

Maria Stepanova is a contemporary Russian poetess, often called a poet of European proportions. Her poems to an unprepared person may seem very strange. The author has his own special style, and first of all the inconsistency of the endings and cases is cast in the eye. But, using such techniques, the Russian poetess successfully stands out among her colleagues. Few people know that the first verse of this talented girl wrote at the age of three.

Childhood and the family of the future poetess

Maria Stepanova is a native Muscovite. She was born on June 9, 1972. The poet herself says that her family can be attributed to the middle stratum of the Moscow intelligentsia. Her father was a photographer and was engaged in various restoration works. Maria's mother worked as an engineer, but at the same time she wrote poetry. Growing up and becoming famous, the Russian poet highly appreciated these poems and recognized that among them there were really good and strong things.

His childhood is quite happy Stepanova. At first she, as a simple child, dreamed of growing up and becoming a driver, then she wanted to be a pirate, but by the age of 7 she had become a poet. Surprisingly, Maria Stepanova invented her first verse in three years. A little later, the parents of young talent showed her works to the famous Moscow philologist R. Timenchik. After reading the poetry of Maria Stepanova, he advised to leave the girl alone, not to make her a small genius and protect her from literary get-togethers. This was necessary for it to be able to fully form itself. In many respects Stepanova, whose biography later developed quite successfully, owes her success to the fact that her parents listened to this advice.

Remembering school years, Masha says that she practically did not notice how they flew. She was in quite normal relations with her classmates, but at the same time she was not really worried about what was happening around her. She spent all school time reading interesting books, and hid them during boring lessons under the desk.

Informal youth

Like any talented teenager, Maria Stepanova wanted to show her individuality and stand out from the crowd. At one time, she was carried away by the hippy movement and in every possible way wanted to join this subculture. Stepanova recalls that she really wanted to stand out, but how to do it right, she did not quite understand.

Known to date in fact, in many countries, the Russian poetess recalls that during her youth she looked sometimes very ridiculous - the girl, for example, easily combined very aggressive punk bracelets decorated with five-centimetric metal spikes, and the most delicate hippo frescoes. She always tried to get into the informal get-together of non-standard and talented personalities who at that time liked to spend their leisure time in the legendary Moscow cafe Pentagon, located at the address: Petrovka, 28.

Definition with profession

The dream of becoming a poet, which Maria Stepanova acquired at the age of seven, has not evaporated over the years, as is the case with many.

After graduating from school, the girl entered the Literary Institute . Gorky and successfully graduated in 1995.

Work in the media industry, OpenSpace.ru

Maria says that she never felt elected as a poet-genius and that's why, despite her great talent, she did not want to limit her activities to writing poetry. Stepanova was afraid to embody the image of a detached genius poet who communicates only with a selected circle of people who understand him.

In one of the interviews, Maria stated that she had long ago made a decision: her life would be "two-chambered" - she spelled out one part for writing poetry, and her main work relates to a completely different story and to her poetic genius has nothing to do.

About Maria Stepanova, many heard for the first time as the chief editor of the socio-political online edition of OpenSpace.ru. This resource covered the main news and events of contemporary culture and art. The main concept of the site was the idea of expert knowledge, and at one time the resource published the works of more than 500 authors in almost 10 categories.

Recognition in the information field

During the time that Stepanova was the chief editor of OpenSpace.ru, the information resource was awarded various awards, among which:

• Winner of the Steppenwolf Award;
• Nomination in the network competition "Rotor";
• Nomination "Editor of the Year" (for which Maria Mikhaylovna Stepanova was nominated).

Restart project

In 2012, information appeared that the resource completely changes the concept of its work. Maria and her entire team left the editorial staff as a whole. They resumed their work in the same year, having registered an entirely new domain Colta.ru. For their funding, they have chosen the original method of crowdfinding, that is, people's investment. In the first weeks of fundraising, the site received an amount that was able to fully ensure its livelihood during the next three months.

Literary works

All this time, Stepanova did not forget about her writing activities. Despite the fact that she is known as an outstanding poetess, Maria writes a very interesting and successful prose. In 2014, she published a collection of her essays entitled "One, not one, not me". This collection is very specific and consists of three conventional parts.

The first is serious extensive tests, manifestos, for which Stepanova spent a lot of time and labor. The second part contains stories about the destinies of different people and about the various possible ways of human existence. Basically, these are stories about women's destinies and their loneliness.

In the second part, under the conditional name "Not One", examples are given of how you can overcome this loneliness. In the plot of these stories, images are looked through, suggesting how to work with this terrible feeling, and examples of how it can be resisted.

The last part is a kind of mix, a "mixture," as Mary herself calls it. It contains various reviews, jokes. Also in the last part of the collection "One, not one, not me" presents the author's reflections on those topics that really concern her.

In addition to the essay Maria wrote prose for the project that became popular in 2000, "Passion for Matthew 2000". She acted as the author of the main idea of creating a project, and also wrote texts for him.

Stepanova is also engaged in journalistic work. She writes articles for some printed publications and at the same time always chooses only those topics that are really interesting to her. This person is very self-critical, and in one of the interviews Maria said that "everything she writes can be called prose only with a certain stretch."

While engaging in various activities, Stepanova never bury her natural talent for writing poems.

Some of those who are familiar with her work consider the verse "Shooting gallery in Sokolniki Park" as the visiting card of the poetess. But many fans disagree with this statement, because in the bibliography of Mary there is a large number of strong and worthwhile works.

In different periods of time, whole collections of books with her poems were published, among them:

• "Lyrics, voice."
• Songs of the Northern Southerners.
• "Here - light."
• "Kireyevsky".
• "About twins."

Awards and achievements

Poems of this writer translated into many languages and published in Europe. At home, Stepanova's talent was also recognized, and at different times she was awarded the following prizes:

• The Andrei Bely prize;
• Laureate of the award. Pasternak;
• Prize of the magazine "Banner";
• The Moscow Account.

In addition, in 2010 she, as a talented author, was awarded a scholarship to the memory of the Foundation. Brodsky. To date, her poems have been printed and translated into several languages, including Finnish, Hebrew, Italian, English, French, as well as Serbo-Croatian and German.