Third Wave gathers writings by contemporary Russian poets whose linguistic and conceptual experimentation represents what critics have termed a “third wave” of literary innovation. The work of this new generation of poets, having gained impetus and audience in the era of perestroika, reflects an experimental spirit that has not surfaced in the USSR since the avant-garde surge of the 1920s and the poetic revival that accompanied the liberalization of the 1950s and 1960s.This historic collection will appeal to the general reader eager for a glimpse into contemporary Soviet literature and culture as well as to scholars working in the areas of comparative literature, Soviet studies, modern literature, poetics, and the avant-garde.

Kent Johnson teaches English at Highland Community College. He is editor, with Craig Paulenich, of Beneath a Single Moon: Buddhism in Contemporary American Poetry. Stephen M. Ashby teaches English at Ball State University.