Nikita Nelin

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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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04/02/20 My Little Hero

April 02, 2020 / Nikita Nelin

I haven’t exactly passed a kidney stone,

nor was I afraid to meet it.

I waited,

almost patiently,

to see its gnarly smile

as it bent me like that,

as though I was the only dandelion

left standing

in a treacherous storm.

Sitting there,

with a thousand contingency plans for revolutions,

and the revolutions that would follow them,

I named it…

My little stone,

my little

personal

piece of history,

a record of doubt

meditation

and longing,

all those days ago

when I was hurting,

thinking about the gods to come

and when again I would yearn to sit alone.

My little, hero,

passing through the rain,

all shields like that,

and glass;

look at all a man must do to be prepared to meet you

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