Maria Stepanova is a modern Russian poetess, who is often called a poet of European scale. Her poems to an unprepared person may seem very strange. The author has his own particular style, and the inconsistency of endings and cases is striking first. But, using such tricks, the Russian poetess successfully stands out among her colleagues. Few people know that this talented girl wrote her first verse at the age of three.
Childhood and family of the future poetess
Maria Stepanova is a native Muscovite. She was born on June 9, 1972. The poetess herself says that her family can be attributed to the middle layer of the Moscow intelligentsia. Her father was a photographer and was engaged in various restoration works. Maria’s mother worked as an engineer, but wrote poetry herself. Having matured and become famous, the Russian poetess highly appreciated these poems and admitted that among them there were really good and strong things.
Stepanova considers her childhood quite happy. At first, she, like a simple child, dreamed of growing up and becoming a driver, then she wanted to be a pirate, but by the age of 7, her desire to become a poet was confirmed. Surprisingly, Maria Stepanova came up with her first verse at the age of three. A little later, the parents of young talent showed her works to the famous Moscow philologist R. Tymenchik. After reading the verses of Maria Stepanova, he advised leaving the girl alone, not making her a little genius and protecting her from a literary hangout. This was necessary so that it could fully form on its own. In many ways, Stepanova, whose biography later developed quite successfully, owes her success to the fact that her parents listened to this advice.
Remembering the school years, Masha says that she almost did not notice how they flew. She was in quite normal relations with her classmates, but at the same time she was really not worried about what was happening around her. She spent all school time reading interesting books, and hid them during boring lessons at her desk.
Informal youth
Like any talented teenager, Maria Stepanova wanted to show her personality and stand out from the crowd. At one time, she became interested in the hippie movement and in every possible way wanted to join this subculture. Stepanova recalls that she really wanted to stand out, but she did not quite understand how to do this correctly.
The Russian poetess, known today in many countries, recalls that in the years of her youth she sometimes looked very ridiculous - a girl, for example, easily combined very aggressive punk bracelets decorated with five-centimeter metal spikes and the most delicate hippie baubles. All the time she tried to get into an informal party of non-standard and talented personalities, who at that time loved to spend their leisure time in the legendary Moscow cafe “Pentagon”, located at Petrovka, 28.
Definition with a profession
The dream of becoming a poet, which Maria Stepanova acquired at the age of seven, did not evaporate 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 like a chosen poet-genius and that is why, despite her great talent, she did not want to limit her activity to writing poetry. Stepanova was afraid to embody the image of a detached genius poet who communicates only with a select circle of people who understand him.
In one of the interviews, Maria stated that she had made a decision a long time ago: her life would be “two-chamber” - for singing poems she singles out one part, and her main work relates to a completely different story and has nothing to do with her poetic genius.
Many heard about Maria Stepanova for the first time as the chief editor of the socio-political online publication OpenSpace.ru. This resource covered the main news and events of modern culture and art. The main concept of the site was the idea of ​​expert knowledge, and at one time the resource published works of more than 500 authors in almost 10 categories.
Recognition in the Information Sphere
During the time that Stepanova was the editor-in-chief of OpenSpace.ru, the information resource received various awards, including:
- Laureate of the Steppe Wolf Prize;
- nomination in the network competition "Rotor";
- nomination "Editor of the Year" (for which Maria Mikhailovna Stepanova was nominated).
Project restart
In 2012, information appeared that the resource was completely changing the concept of its work. Maria and her entire team then left the editorial staff in full force. They resumed their work in the same year, registering a completely new Colta.ru domain. For their financing, they chose the original method of crowdfunding, that is, public investment. In the first weeks of fundraising, the site received an amount that was able to fully ensure its vital functions over the next three months.
Literary work
All this time, Stepanova did not forget about her writing activities. Despite the fact that she is known as an outstanding poetess, Maria writes very interesting and successful prose. In 2014, she released a collection of her essays entitled "One, Not One, Not Me." This collection is very specific and consists of three conditional parts.
The first is serious extensive tests, manifests, the writing of which Stepanova spent a lot of time and labor. The second part contains stories about the fates of different people and about various possible ways of human existence. These are mainly stories about women's destinies and their loneliness.
In the second part, under the code name "Not One", examples are given of how to overcome this loneliness. The plot of these stories shows images that suggest 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” the author reflects on the topics that really concern her.
In addition to the essay, Maria wrote prose for the project “Passion for Matthew 2000”, which became popular in 2000. She acted as the author of the main idea of ​​creating the project, and also wrote texts for him.
Stepanova is engaged in journalistic work. She writes articles for some print media and always chooses only topics that are really interesting to her. This person is very self-critical, and in an interview, Maria said that "everything she writes can be called prose only with a certain stretch."
Engaged in various activities, Stepanova never buried her innate talent for writing poetry.
Some of those who are familiar with her work, consider the verse "Shooting gallery in Sokolniki Park" a poetess' visiting card. But many fans do not agree with this judgment, because in the bibliography of Mary there are a large number of strong and worthwhile works.
In different periods of time, entire collections of books with her poems were published, among which:
- "Lyrics, voice."
- "Songs of the Northern Southerners."
- “Here is the light.”
- "Kireevsky."
- "About the twins."
Prizes and Achievements
Poems of this writer are 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:
- Andrey Bely Prize ;
- Prize winner Parsnip;
- Prize of the “Banner” magazine;
- Moscow account award.
In addition, in 2010 she, as a talented author, was awarded a scholarship in memory of the Fund named after 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.