Nikita Nelin

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The Obligatory Bio in the 3rd-person:

Nikita Nelin was born in Moscow, Russia and immigrated to the U.S in 1989. He has lived in Austria and Italy, and has traveled the U.S extensively. He received the Sean O’Faolain prize for short fiction, the Summer Literary Seminars prize for nonfiction, and the Dogwood Literary Prize in Nonfiction, as well as being chosen as a finalist for the Restless Books Immigrant prize and the Dzanc Books prize. His work has been published in print and online. Nikita has conducted research through the Harriman Institute as well as translation through Yale Press, and has written on the convergence between fringe and at-large cultural trends for the Hannah Arendt Center. He holds an MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College, is a 2019 Associate Fellow at The Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities, and is a member of the Southern Experience Collective.

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03/17/20 The Weather

April 02, 2020 / Nikita Nelin

Don’t rush to conclusions,

we haven’t finished this turn around the sun,

yet,

and around the corner there are always surprises

- you see?

Who’d thought you’d be here –

hoarding apple sauce,

alphabetizing your Russian novels,

telling the cat it’s gonna be ok

in your most beautiful English

- my boy?

If your political mind is at odds with your poetry,

choose the next line carefully,

like your pens are teeth,

mashing the open spaces

frenetically

as the world

disappears inwards,

the gears go on hiatus,

the expected takes a turn to the

valley

where Morrison screams

and sunlight splashes

like wind from a ghost.

On second thought

- fuck it –

say what you mean,

be it from fear

or celebration

or the perplexity

of them sharing a theater.

There’s nothing you can do

to surprise me

when everything is the weather

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