KVI Network / International Literary Spotlight
Kristina
Stepchenkova
Experimental poetry, artistic individuality, and the courage to create beyond convention.
VLADIVOSTOK · RUSSIA · LITERARY VOICES
01 / The Author
A Voice That Refuses Convention
From Vladivostok to the international literary conversation, Kristina Stepchenkova explores poetry as a form of experimental art, where spontaneity and complex imagery challenge familiar expectations.
Stepchenkova began writing in February 2022. A 2023 laureate of a regional culture and arts prize, she contributed to the Russian–Serbian collection Friendship, 2025 and the Russian–Portuguese almanac Discovery, whose preface explores connections between Russian and Portuguese literature. She is associated with the “Hyperpoem” Collegium and the Youth Union of Writers of St. Petersburg, wrote The Concept of Individuality (2022), and co-organized the poetry duel “King of the Mountain.” She works as an archivist, studies theology at master’s level, translates magazine texts and occasionally illustrates.
Author profile: Vladivostok, Russia · Experimental literature · Translation · Theology · Visual art
02 / The Conversation
Inside the Creative Mind
Kristina’s interview responses appear alongside clearly identified KVI Network editorial summaries. The summaries are not direct quotations.
01 / INTERVIEW
What inspired you to create?
My loved ones inspired me to be creative. My mother was an artist in her youth, so she actively supported my desire to create. And my friends from the local music circle, where I worked as a makeup artist during my teenage years, introduced me to literature.
02 / INTERVIEW
How are poems born?
Poems come to life on their own; it’s a flow of thought. They just arise somehow, I’m just their guide, their ventriloquist.
03 / INTERVIEW
How do you edit your poems?
The text is good in its original form. I love my texts just as they came into being. Somehow, that feels more natural.
04 / INTERVIEW
What makes your writing distinctive?
I stand out among authors because my texts are more of an art object. They are difficult to perceive, complex in their imagery, and sometimes play on a sense of revulsion. Perhaps I’m a bit of a literary weirdo; I’m trying to become a weirdo.
05 / INTERVIEW
How do you balance tradition and innovation?
In the past year, I’ve completely immersed myself in experimenting with words; I found the traditional form boring and stifling. But it’s necessary to find a balance — it can be really challenging.
06 / INTERVIEW
What is poetry’s purpose today?
Poetry is often an act of expressing one’s position and emotions. That’s probably why it’s still alive — people want to speak beautifully about their feelings.
07 / INTERVIEW
Who is your ideal reader?
Probably, there is no ideal reader. The main thing is that the reader respects the text and is interested, and the rest can be forgiven.
08 / INTERVIEW
Who influenced you?
I was probably influenced to a greater extent by Genrikh Sapgir. Perhaps also by Boris Ryzhi. Among contemporary poets, most likely Matvey Tsapko and Pavel Avtomenko‑Price — wonderful authors.
09 / INTERVIEW
What fuels your creativity?
Probably the tradition of gathering with local authors, with my little literary group. The texts often arise from jokes, from fragments of our phrases.
10 / INTERVIEW
What is creative success and failure?
The success lies in the fact that I didn’t give up after my first prolonged creative crisis. I cried for a couple of months and then got back to work. And failure is texts written to be like everyone else. I would call the desire to be someone other than yourself my main mistake from the past.
11 / INTERVIEW
What would you recommend Vietnamese colleagues read?
From the classical – read the Russian avant-garde, the Russian 30s-60s. It is more difficult to distinguish from modern ones, but I can recommend small online publications like New Weird Russia, Novoe, Prosody.
12 / INTERVIEW
KVI EDITORIAL SUMMARY · NOT A DIRECT QUOTE
What are your favorite poems?
She identifies a few favorites, particularly those with vivid imagery, although she finds it difficult to explain exactly why.
13 / INTERVIEW
KVI EDITORIAL SUMMARY · NOT A DIRECT QUOTE
How do you feel about poetry’s popularity and writing to trends?
She favors sincere engagement with poetry over writing for popularity, and prefers abstract experimentation to following topical trends.
14 / INTERVIEW
KVI EDITORIAL SUMMARY · NOT A DIRECT QUOTE
Do you have an artistic antithesis?
She finds large bodies of writing difficult to navigate and sees authors who produce extensive works as a possible contrast to her own approach.
15 / INTERVIEW
KVI EDITORIAL SUMMARY · NOT A DIRECT QUOTE
Do you have unfinished ideas?
She believes a worthwhile idea can wait until it finds the right form.
16 / INTERVIEW
KVI EDITORIAL SUMMARY · NOT A DIRECT QUOTE
Tell us about your life beyond poetry.
She describes working as an archivist, pursuing a master’s degree in theology, translating for magazines, reading and occasionally illustrating.
03 / The Editorial Perspective
Individuality as an Artistic Principle
Stepchenkova approaches poetry not only as language but as an art object. Her resistance to conventional forms raises a philosophical question: must art be immediately legible to be meaningful? Her preference for first-form texts privileges spontaneity over perfection, while her acknowledgment that innovation needs balance reveals the tension between creative freedom and literary inheritance.
Readers need not share every aesthetic preference to appreciate her position. Her interview asks us to consider how originality, discomfort and ambiguity can expand our understanding of literature.
04 / Across Borders
Literature Without Boundaries
Her Russian–Serbian and Russian–Portuguese collaborations, and her reading recommendations for Vietnamese colleagues, illustrate the importance of literary dialogue across borders. KVI Network celebrates that exchange through international literary voices.
For reflection: Must poetry be immediately understood to be meaningful, or can uncertainty become part of the artistic experience?
05 / Reading & References
Further Reading & Source Notes
Primary source. Interview with Kristina Stepchenkova, five-page interview provided for KVI Network editorial use. Her statements about her biography, affiliations, awards, and creative approach are attributed to that interview.
Author’s published writing. Kristina Stepchenkova’s poetry page on Stihi.ru lists early works including Концепция индивидуальности (The Concept of Individuality), providing readers with an opportunity to explore the writing itself.
Literary context. YIVO Encyclopedia: Genrikh Sapgir provides background on the Russian avant-garde poet named among Stepchenkova’s influences. T. G. Yurchenko’s scholarly overview of Sapgir’s poetics examines his experimental literary techniques. These references provide context for the literary tradition, not independent verification of Stepchenkova’s biography.
Editorial Acknowledgment
This literary spotlight is based on an interview with Kristina Stepchenkova, shared with KVI Network for editorial presentation. Her creative perspectives and literary journey are presented alongside KVI Network’s independent editorial reflections.
