Viktor Sosnora Poet, prose writer Date of Birth: 28.04.1936 Country: Ukraine

1. Biography of Victor Sosnora
2. Early Career and Military Service
3. Literary Success and International Recognition
4. Legacy and Recognition

Biography of Victor Sosnora

Victor Sosnora was a poet and prose writer known for his numerous publications, including eight collections of poetry and two books of prose. His works include the collection of stories "The Flying Dutchman" (1979) and the novel "House of Days" (1990). He was born on April 28, 1936, in Alupka. Sosnora experienced the war in Leningrad, from where he left at the beginning of the blockade. He was a "son of the regiment," serving as a liaison in a partisan detachment in Kuban and as a "son of the Polish Army" under Rokossovsky, where his father (a former acrobat-equilibrist from the Leningrad Circus) commanded a corps. He traveled with the Army from Leningrad to Frankfurt on the Rhine. He spent his school years in Warsaw, Leningrad, Arkhangelsk, Makhachkala, and Lviv. In addition, he was involved in sports schools, including skiing (master of sports in ski jumping), fencing, boxing, and football. He studied at a music school and at the Lviv Institute of Applied Arts (did not graduate).

Early Career and Military Service

Sosnora served in the army from 1955 to 1958, working as a gunner on anti-aircraft guns and as a calculator in artillery mortar units. After his military service, he worked as an electrician fitter at the Nevsky Machine-Building Plant while simultaneously studying at the correspondence department of the Philosophy Faculty of Leningrad State University (he did not complete his degree).

Literary Success and International Recognition

In 1958, Sosnora's first poem was published, and in 1962, his collection of poems "January Rain" was released with a preface by N. Aseev (Sosnora dedicated his next collection, "Triptych," in 1965 to Aseev). He did not publish in the USSR for twenty years. Sosnora translated the works of Catullus, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe, Aragon, and Allen Ginsberg. He spent thirty years leading literary studios for young people in Leningrad.

Sosnora published eight collections of poetry and two books of prose, including the collection of stories "The Flying Dutchman" (1979) and the novel "House of Days" (1990). Additionally, his selected works were published by Ardis Publishers in the United States and a volume of his prose was published by Posev Publishers in Germany. He was also a scholar of Slavic languages and folklore, delivering lectures at the New Paris University (Vincennes) and teaching in Wrocław.

Legacy and Recognition

Sosnora's books of poetry and prose have been translated into the United States, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, France, and other countries. He was known for being both the graphic artist and designer of his books. Sosnora was a member of the Union of Writers and an honorary member of the Academy of Russian Verse in Moscow. He was awarded the Apollo Grigoriev Prize for his book of poetry "Where Did He Go and Where's the Window?"