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Polina Barskova (born in Leningrad in 1976) and Maria Stepanova (born in Moscow in 1972) are two eminent Russian writers of their generation, sharing a strong grasp of their language’s storied, and not quite unproblematic, poetic tradition. Their writing is elicited by interactions with other literature, but remains utterly original, sensual, and erudite. As subversive imitators of voices and forms, Barskova and Stepanova’s playfulness nevertheless has a more serious backdrop, as their work always contends with histories of war. Poetry thus becomes an instrument of both documentation and resistance.