thesilkroadtoday
Victor Klykov, the Russian poet based in Austria and president of the literary club Russian Poetry in Austria, has announced the completion of a major collective poetry book marking the club’s 20th anniversary this year.
Founded two decades ago, the club has become an important cultural platform for Russian-language poets and literary dialogue in Austria, bringing together writers, intellectuals, and lovers of poetry through readings, publications, and international cultural cooperation.
To commemorate the jubilee, the club launched an ambitious publishing project: a collective anthology featuring the works of twenty poets affiliated with the organization. According to Victor Klykov, the preparation of the volume required nearly six months of intensive editorial and organizational work, including collecting texts, editing manuscripts, coordinating contributors, and preparing the final version for publication together with his wife.
“The work demanded enormous effort,” Klykov noted, emphasizing that the project was conceived not merely as an anniversary publication, but as a literary testimony to two decades of Russian poetic presence in Austria.
The decision to publish the anthology gained additional significance after the announcement that the upcoming world congress with the participation of WOW will be held this September in Vienna. At the same time, WOW has proclaimed this year as a year dedicated to the Russian language, creating what Klykov described as “a meaningful cultural opportunity” to present the literary club and its poets before an international audience.
The manuscript has now been finalized and prepared for publication, while discussions are underway regarding the possibility of printing the book through WOW in Russia.
The forthcoming anthology is expected to stand as both a celebration of the club’s twenty-year journey and a reflection of the enduring vitality of Russian-language poetry beyond national borders. Through this publication, Victor Klykov and the members of Russian Poetry in Austria reaffirm the role of literature as a bridge between cultures, languages, and generations.
