Shota Iatashvili
- Georgia -
Shota Iatashvili was born in 1966 in Tbilisi, Georgia. He is a poet, fiction writer, translator and critic. He has published 10 poetry collections, one novel, one fairy tale, four works of prose, a book of literary criticism and 6 books of translations.
In 2007 and 2011 he won the SABA Prize, in 2020 – LITERA and in 2022 – Free LITERA - Georgia’s most prestigious awards, in 2009 International Poetry Award “Kievskie Lavri” (Ukraina), in 2018 polish literature award of Klemens Janicki for poetry book “Golden Ratio”, in 2018 Vilenica Crystal Award in Vilenica International Literary Festival (Slovenia) and in 2022 price for best poem in international poetry festival Plovdiv-Orpheus (Bulgaria).
His works have been translated into English, German, French, Italian, Spain, Dutch, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Slovenian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Russian, Belarusian, Chinese, Korean, Swedish, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Turkish, Arabian, Albanian, Armenian, Azerbaijanian languages. His books have been published in Ukraine, Poland and Azerbaijan. His poems are included in various anthologies of Georgian authors published in English, German, Dutch, Italian, Russian, Ukrainian, Swedish, Azerbaijanian languages.
Currently, he is consultant of Tbilisi International Festival of Literature (http://tbilisilitfest.ge).
Poetry of Shota Iatashvili
Usually, poets achieve what’s conditionally called their voice, their individual signature through extensive work and trying new ways and techniques, but in Shota Iatashvili’s case, everything happened the other way around: at the very start of his creative journey, he had found and marked his own poetic image, model towards which he was to have gone in subsequent years. He returns to this model from time to time, whereas during the interim, it seems he forges different, sometimes mutually exclusive paths leading towards his poetic voice in order to greet it from different directions every time.
Zviad Ratiani
Annotation for the collection The Adversities of Poetic Experience (2015)
This new collection of Shota Iatashvili’s poems, in any case, the beginning portion at least, will become a must-read for poets, as well as for writers and readers at large, for the simple reason that these enticing poems attired in the latest fashion also bear some exceptionally intriguing textbook programs just as elaborate as them. They’ll be unmistakenly recognized by the reader through subject matter regarding the end of poetry or the customary defeats of poetry scattered about like jewels at various conferences, festivals, and transparent art cafes.
From the start, the unique style characteristic of Shota Iatashvili is manifested through this collection, where a lyrical mood and a likewise calm analytical view that’s never abstract and which always partakes in the reader’s emotions, meet directly. This style of his seems to have some connections to op-ed poetry, too, although it is more neutral in tone and creates a broader image – when the poet must set apart entire sections and various themes in his own poems. Thus, Shota Iatashvili’s poetry, with an analytical structure like a Rubik’s cube, is transformed into poetry with “entertaining” and thought-provoking rubrics. A poem titled the same as a collection – “21st Century Poet” – and which elicits an allusion to an ambitious continuation of his well-known poem “A Poet at the End of the 20th Century” from the 1990s, presents just as amusing of a quality, but it will be seen that the poet paradoxically and somewhat self-ironically depicts two mutually opposing states for us – what a modern poet is like and how he must be. Later, some investigations are encountered in the collection and we have to establish together with our poet as to where poetic inspiration might be found or if we can think about the birth of a new poetry that’ll turn out to be free of any program, or not – in short, provided here is the continuation of a regular poetic line and this lyrical guidebook will be accepted and valued by the reader like a precious gift.
Davit Chikhladze
Epilogue to the collection A Poet at the Beginning of the 21st Century (2019)
Shota Iatashvili is one of the exemplary poets from the Georgian avant-garde of the 1990s. From the standpoint of form, the jinx had already been broken in poetry and free poetry was firmly taking its earned spot on the general poetic landscape. Yet, Shota was really one of the first people to confront the thematic segregation dominant in poetry at the time and he started to write about such subjects that no one had previously thought to be a source of poetic inspiration. I had read his poems when I was around 20-22 years old and was left awestruck. At this age, poets are usually searching for themselves, yet before me a poet had already fully taken shape. Some poets from his generation have passed away and others no longer write, yet Shota has continued writing to this day.
Currently, Shota Iatashvili has not deviated from his chosen course, even his recent collection A Poet at the Beginning of the 21st Century, published by Intelekti Publishing, is a logical extension of this journey.
Beka Akhalaia
Fragment from a review of the collection A Poet at the Beginning of the 21st Century (2019
Poetry
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Ode to Clothes / ტანსაცმლის ოდა
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The Aviator / მფრინავი
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Money / ფული
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Drawing a Line between Meteorology and Poetry / მეტეოროლოგიის გამიჯვნა პოეზიისაგან
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On How A City Gets Published Each Day / როგორ ქვეყნდება ყოველდღიური ქალაქი
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UNTITLED *** / უსათაურო ***
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UNTITLED *** / უსათაურო ***
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Soccer / ფეხბურთი
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To a Veris Park Cafe Waiter / ვერის ბაღის კაფეს ოფიციანტს
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Friendship / მეგობრობა
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The Yawn / მთქნარება
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Motion / მოძრაობა
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The End of Poetry / პოეზიის ბოლო
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Experience after Blake / Experience after Blake
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Flashing / ციმციმი
