Talanova Galina (Bochkova Galina Borisovna)

Galina Talanova (born Galina Borisovna Bochkova; born April 15, 1961, Gorky) is a Nizhny Novgorod writer, poet, and prose author, author of collections of poetry and novels, and a member of the Union of Writers of Russia. By profession she is a biophysicist and holds a Candidate of Technical Sciences degree. She lives in Nizhny Novgorod.^[1][3][19]

Themes and creative work

Galina Talanova is the author of collections of poetry and prose. She began as a poet and later turned to writing novels; critics note that her prose remains essentially poetic in nature — "They say I write poetry in prose," she titled one of her interviews.^[6][12]

The recurring themes of her books are love, loneliness, loss, and death; writing about the novel Run or Die, Elena Kryukova observed that the author "turns to archetypal themes, to images as urgent as they are eternal — to life and death."^[14][8]

The fragile and always complex relations between two people; the eternal search for the unattainable; the chase after the mirage of a passing meteor; hope for a miracle and illusions that vanish like burning paper, leaving neither warmth nor light; the sandcastle of a home crumbling under the raw winds of life, the bitter aftertaste of disappointments — these are the themes of Galina Talanova. The sensory ignites a fanciful tangle of associations, and perception moves inward, sharpening all the more.

Do not be afraid to create illusions — they help us live and be happy! From the grains of time you can build an entire castle; cherish them, and remember that everything can end at any moment…

Biography

Galina Borisovna Bochkova was born in Gorky into a family of shipbuilders who were also university lecturers. Her mother is the poet Elvira Bochkova.^[1][12]

She graduated with a gold medal from School No. 25 and with honors from the Biology Faculty of Gorky State University (now Lobachevsky University) with a specialization in biophysics.^[1][3][8]

She wrote her thesis at the Gorky Branch of the Institute of Biophysics of the USSR Ministry of Health and was retained there to work in the laboratory, studying the effects of microwave electromagnetic field radiation on bioluminescence. She then worked at the Gorky Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, where she focused on membrane filtration of blood preparations. In 1992, she defended a dissertation on this topic at the NIPKI of Applied Biochemistry (Moscow), earning a Candidate of Technical Sciences degree.^[1]

In 1995, due to a sharp reduction in state budget funding, she joined NPO Diagnostic Systems LLC, which develops and manufactures enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test systems for the diagnosis of infections, including detection of hepatitis C virus infection; by the end of the 2010s she headed the department for the production of test systems for the detection of hepatitis C virus markers. In 2020, according to her account, the organization developed reagent kits for the detection of antibodies to the coronavirus.^[1][27][10]

Author of around 50 scholarly works, including papers presented at international congresses and symposia in Paris, Glasgow, Copenhagen, Washington, San Antonio, Vienna, Milan, Frankfurt am Main, Venice, Berlin, and Barcelona. In her own words, she has spent her whole life trying to "yoke together in one harness the inquiring 'scientist' and the sensitive 'poet'."^[1][27]

She wrote her first poems in second grade at her music teacher's assignment. Her first publications appeared in 1970–1971 in Gorky newspapers; from 1989 onward she has published under the pen name Galina Talanova. She came to prose writing late, when she got her first computer: "poems simply stopped being able to contain everything I wanted to say."^[1][12][10]

A member of the Writers' Union of Russia. Her poetry and prose have been translated into English, Swedish, Italian, Japanese, French, Bulgarian, Polish, Greek, and Hungarian (in anthologies).^[1][4]

A surname was invented that was supposed to bring me luck… And so we lived. Two poets under one roof, one of whom would go a long time without seeing the other, opening a newspaper to find poems by Elvira Bochkova alongside verses by some unknown Talanova. Then came the secret first book.

Mother — poet Elvira Bochkova

Elvira Leonidovna Bochkova (1938–2011) was a Nizhny Novgorod poet, the author of twelve poetry collections and a member of the Writers' Union of Russia.^[2]

Born Polkanova, she was born on 1 March 1938 in Gorky into a family of shipbuilders; in 1961 she graduated from the shipbuilding faculty of the Gorky Polytechnic Institute and worked as a designer at the TsKB Volgabaltsudoproekt design bureau. The poets Fyodor Sukhov and Nikolay Starshinov gave their blessing to her literary endeavors. Her first book, Dvizheniya dushi (Movements of the Soul), was published by the Moscow publishing house Sovremennik in 1980; her last, Put' k domu (The Road Home), appeared in 2011. She died on 20 March 2011. On her website, her daughter Galina Talanova is described as a poet, prose writer, and member of the Writers' Union of Russia.^[2]

Talanova traces her path into literature to her mother: "My mother, Elvira Bochkova, was a poet, though her profession was not literature either — she was a shipbuilder." Her mother's death is reflected in her books: she described the state of the heroine in the novel Beg po krayu (Running on the Edge) after the loss of loved ones immediately following her mother's death, and the second part of the poetry collection Bezhit voda, kachaya svet i teni… (The Water Flows, Rocking Light and Shadows…) — I v snakh prikhodyat myortvye zhivymi… (And in Dreams the Dead Come Back Alive…) — is dedicated to Elvira Bochkova.^[10][12][11]

Awards and recognition

Among Galina Talanova's awards are regional prizes: "Boldino Autumn" (2012), the Nizhny Novgorod Region Prize named after A. M. Gorky (2016), and the Nizhny Novgorod Prize (2018), as well as the prize of the journal Sever (North) (2012) and diplomas from international competitions.^[3][5][25]

Books

Her first poetry collections were published in Nizhny Novgorod by small presses; since 2017, her novels have been published by the Moscow publishing house AST in the series "Best Romance Novels." The novel Run or Die was published in a journal version in Sever (2022, nos. 3–4).^[1][6][21]

"Blue Ocean"

Talanova's first novel was published in 2010 by the Nizhny Novgorod publishing house "Vertikal. XXI Vek"; a magazine version under the title "Solo Voyage" was printed by the Petrozavodsk journal "Sever" (2012, nos. 3–6), for which the author received the journal's prize. The Blue Ocean in the novel is the Internet, in which the heroine finds refuge from loneliness.^[1][6][20]

Lyudmila Sipko devoted two articles to the book — in "Sever" and in "Vertikal. XXI Vek" — calling "Blue Ocean" a book "out of the ordinary, going beyond familiar stereotypes."^[20]

A dark stripe, a light stripe… Light and shadow, racing past each other, weave their ever-changing, fanciful pattern on the wall — a pattern whose meaning can only be guessed at from the blurred dark imprint on the rough wall of a room bathed in moonlight, or on the curtain backlit from within by the soft orange glow seeping through a translucent lampshade. That is how it used to be. That is how it still is. Only now new walls have appeared in our lives — walls on which we leave our shadows or our breath, or write messages in neat, proper letters to those idly wandering the Blue Ocean of the Internet. We toss unsealed bottles with electronic papyrus into it, secretly hoping that someone sailing the Ocean will fish them out. Or we vainly try to piece together a stranger's life from scattered phrases and photographs, searching for a kindred soul.

This is a book about loneliness: the loneliness of two people together, the loneliness of a crowd that drives us out on long voyages across the Blue Ocean. But the return to the sinful shore is always inevitable. This is a book about the impossibility of love, because one simply lacks the strength for it — we wear ourselves out in the pursuit of daily bread, in our constant striving to live up to the image of the successful hero of our time, who has adapted with tenacious roots to survive on any soil, waterless and thickly overgrown with thorns… Life is frightening!.. Constantly confronted on earth with insoluble problems, we seek refuge once again in the boundless expanse of the "responsive" and lulling Ocean.

The author renders psychology with suppleness and without tedium; the heroine is a person of palpable individuality, and the blue ocean — the Internet — engages productively with the problem of loneliness. The problem is not solved, but its sharpness is blunted: evening after evening a person spends in virtual communication that is no less rich in emotional range than real life. In reality she remains alone, but no longer suffers from it, because she "lives online," as one of the heroine's interlocutors puts it. And those who live online are by now no fewer than the fish in the ocean. Their loved ones fall ill and die; children are born without hands; all the terrible things that make life a tragedy happen to them too — but all of that is behind them, while before them stretches the blue ocean with its cool wave…

…In "Solo Voyage," heterogeneous stylistic elements are inseparably blended: the diary's nakedness of fact and deep philosophical meditation, a pull toward "documentary authenticity" and fanciful associative imagery, sharp emotional outbursts and the cool rationality of narration. It is precisely at the juncture of these divergent artistic devices that an individually distinctive prosaic genre is born… The individual style of the author of "Solo Voyage" cannot fail to impress with the richness and variety of its artistic language. This may in part be connected with the fact that Galina Talanova is not only a prose writer but also an original poet. Even in prose she remains true to her poetic mode of thinking, which lends "Solo Voyage" its lyrical coloring… Bold innovation in genre, experiments in style and composition, unconventional means of expressing the author's position — all of this places the novella among the finest works of contemporary Russian prose.

"Everyday" associations suddenly give way to philosophical reflections on the eternal, frequently taking the form of aphorisms: "Loneliness is time to think," "Life with the feeling of loneliness in a crowd," "Age is the burden of dreams unfulfilled and unfulfillable," "Age is what everyone already knows, but you haven't yet figured out," "To survive, one must build illusions," and others. So-called "ornamented" prose, built on metaphorical-associative modes of connection and subject to the influence of poetic structures, has become an integral part of Galina Talanova's style. A richness of imagery interspersed with alliterations, a sense of inner rhythm, elements of hyperbole and grotesque, deliberately unwieldy syntactic constructions — all of this is especially characteristic of Talanova's interiors and landscapes. Galina Talanova's "Blue Ocean" is an extraordinary book that transcends familiar stereotypes.

"Running on the Edge"

The novel was published in 2014 by Vertikal. XXI Vek, in its journal version in Sever (2014, nos. 1–4), and in 2017 was reissued by AST in the series "The Best Novels About Love." In 2016, Talanova received the Nizhny Novgorod Region's A. M. Gorky Prize for this book; in 2017, the novel was shortlisted for the international F. M. Dostoyevsky Prize.^{[1][6][5][25]}

The protagonist is Lidiya Andreyevna, a woman in her forties who was born in the Soviet Union; the novel, in three parts, is composed of her recollections of how her loved ones leave her one by one. According to the author, the plot is based on the real story of a woman she once worked with, while the romantic storylines are fiction.^[8][12]

Yaroslav Kaurov wrote in Sever: "The work of Galina Talanova is an example of how an intelligent, unobtrusive, and gifted author, despite all the obstacles created in contemporary literature, can reach readers' hearts." He also noted that in her prose "one can clearly sense the scientist" — a biophysicist by training.^[6]

Galina Talanova's novel "Running on the Edge" is once again a novel about loneliness — but now not about loneliness in a crowd or loneliness for two, but about a boundless loneliness, when nothing can be changed or rewritten anymore… It is a book about the running of one driven in circles and along the edge, when the running grows ever slower and breathing ever harder… It is a book about love that is calm and full-flowing, like a lowland river whose depths are churned by underwater springs quietly boring a funnel of murky whirlpool; and about love like a mountain stream that knocks you off your feet and dashes you against sharp oncoming stones.

It is a book about death, about a succession of sudden losses that, like a snowball, begin rolling downhill just when life has come together and settled into its groove. Where and when did the protagonist stumble as she walked the icy rim of the abyss, and why did those she loved cling to the stone on which they sat? Left alone at the edge, she seemed to draw and draw from the river-lake of her subconscious her recollections and could not pull them out to the end — like heavy glittering nets packed with living fish tangled within them…

"Fireflies in the Wind"

The novel, previously unpublished, came out in late October 2017 from AST Publishing in the "Best Love Novels" series. The protagonist, Vika, is gravely ill and looks back on her life: a drinking husband, betrayal, a car accident, the death of her parents, and a difficult relationship with her son Timur. In 2018, Talanova won the Nizhny Novgorod Prize for this novel.^[9][12][25]

Alexandra Bagrechevskaya wrote in Uchitelskaya Gazeta that the book "breaks sharply from the 'pink,' light women's fiction with its obligatory happy ending": "This book cannot be skimmed — it must be felt and lived through."^[7]

The epigraphs to the novel's four parts are Japanese haiku about fireflies, conveying the philosophical meaning of each part. The image of fireflies flickering in the night accompanies the protagonist throughout the entire narrative. The Japanese believed fireflies to be the souls of deceased ancestors. It was thought that the bright glow of these insects penetrates to the very heart and illuminates the longing of love. This is a book about love, about death, about loneliness. The image of fireflies that once flared in the night accompanies the protagonist through the novel's four parts, spanning her entire life. This is a novel about how the darkest stretch can be lit up by letting in the light from our past, flashing like fireflies in the dark forest of our lives, and about how the anticipation of a miracle always proves stronger than the event itself, and life shorter than we had thought. Nothing can be held in the palms of our hands… And only love, and those we have loved — who, though they have gone with no hope of return — leave a glowing arc of light inside our hearts. This is a book about living in such a way as to leave light in the hearts of people.

"Po volnam, po okeanam…" ("Across the Waves, Across the Oceans…")

The novel was published by AST in 2020, during the pandemic. Its protagonist is a young widow, Svetlana, who, after the sudden death of her husband, seeks a way out of depression through social media and finds there a new acquaintance from her real life. Alexandra Bagrechevskaya wrote that after the lockdown she "came to understand the characters' state of mind far better."^[10][13]

"Krasnaya Luna" ("Red Moon")

The novel was published in 2021 simultaneously by two publishers — AST and Vest-Consulting. In 2022 it was longlisted for the Fazil Iskander Prize (alongside the magazine version of the novel "Begi ili umri" ("Run or Die")) and shortlisted for the Kuprin Competition "Granatovy Braslet" ("The Garnet Bracelet").^[26][15][16]

"Krasnaya Luna" ("Red Moon") is a novel about love, about irreplaceable losses, and about the end that inevitably awaits each of us, despite our eternal hope for a miracle; a novel full of the sense of life's fullness and tragedy, conveyed through the language of poetic imagery. In ancient times, the appearance of the Blood Moon inspired fear and dread, as people believed that such a phenomenon was nothing other than a portent of the end of the world. It was held to be a truly sacred time, for the moon was dying and filling with blood. Residents were not to leave their homes on the night of the Blood Moon, and windows were draped with heavy cloth to keep out the crimson, diabolical light. To appease the wrathful Gods and prolong the life of humanity, tribes would make a sacrifice on the night of the Blood Moon, offering the Gods what they held most dear and precious: a newborn infant, or a young woman chosen to become the Gods' bride.

A rare spectacle that not everyone manages to witness even once in a lifetime… Yet for the novel's heroine, the blood moon — resembling a scalped head wrapped in a black mourning shawl of clouds — appears again and again, warning her of yet another dramatic turn of fate: a new love, a family life with a husband old enough to be her father, a tango-embrace with her own mother, a car accident, a game of "run or die," the appearance of a son in her life and his loss, a change in social standing, and "a house provided by the state." The moon pours out an anguish that lashes like blood from a severed vessel, yet it is not always possible to change one's life as one would wish…

"Run or Die" and Later Books

The novel "Run or Die" was published in Sever (2022, nos. 3–4, pp. 186–249). Its heroine, an old woman named Olesya, recalls her past while living in a nursing home: an unhappy love, her husbands, an adopted son. Elena Kryukova wrote in her review of the issue: "Galina Talanova writes superbly: densely, metaphorically, tragically, and at the same time transparently and simply."^[14][21]

The poetry collection "Water Runs, Rocking Light and Shadows…" (Vest-Consulting, 2023) consists of four parts: about love, about a mother, about the empty streets of the pandemic era, and about bidding farewell to youth. In 2026, the same publisher released a prose collection, "Black Birds."^[11][1]

Critics on Her Poetry

Talanova's poetry has been discussed by Aleksandr Aseyevsky (in the collection Dusha lyubvi otkryta ["The Soul of Love Is Open"], 2009), Lyudmila Sipko, and contributors to the German journal Zarubezhnye zadvorks.^[20]

For all the composure and focus of the poet's verses on the story of her heroine's dramatic love (and what true love is there but the dramatic kind?), on the continuous flow — from poem to poem — of the emotional, sensory experience of love's parabola through life, the attentive reader of Galina Talanova's poetry will discover unexpected things. How keenly she feels the sea, a thunderstorm, summer and winter, the forest, a river, the little stems of grasses swaying in the wind. Most often it is five to seven words, two or three lines woven into a poem, yet they are drawn and inscribed with a captivating conciseness and with a sheen of heartfelt penetration.

And the urban landscapes and their details scattered throughout the poet's verses — alongside the traditional poetic "attributes" of love — together recreate a vivid, dynamic, and startled world of today. I know, I am certain, that some women readers of Galina Talanova's poems return to them from memory, because they find in them something akin to their own fate, because for them these poems are a talisman and an incantation for their own life and destiny.

One can say with absolute honesty of Galina Talanova's poetry — it is permeated by the currents of a pure heart and — I will not resist the comparison, however lofty — it is like a crystal stream flowing somewhere across our boundless Russian plains. Her convincing concentration on the most essential manifestation of humanity — love, solitary, unrequited, at times weeping, at times soaring to the heavens, the love of a woman's heart — these are the pages in the kingdom of poetry that no one will ever tire of reading. One need only receive what is said by those chosen few upon whom it is bestowed to conjure for humanity a golden dream of the most beautiful thing in the world…

Galina Talanova's poetry is difficult to describe, to define, or to assign to any particular poetic school. These are pictures of existence as fragile as a dream, multicolored fragments of a mosaic of stained-glass feelings and emotions. Yet her lyricism is precise and easy to absorb: through the delicate tracery of emotions, the philosophical dimension of life emerges — a clear image of the seemingly elusive passage of time.

...As the years pass, good people with generous souls inevitably reflect on how many unwritten pages remain in the singular Book of Existence — reflecting inwardly or on paper. Galina, unlike many, has been luckier in this regard. She is a talented and sensitive poet, and that means her reflections will be heard, and the light of her soul will help someone.

...The aphoristic quality of many of Galina Talanova's poetic lines is unmistakable. This is yet another proof of her remarkable poetic gift. Her works are filled with original artistic devices, chief among which are metaphors: the tear-stained square of a window, a leaden cloud of phrases, the ladles of cupped palms, sticky heat, the joints of graying aspens, a straw of sorrow, the greenhouse of the soul, and many others. Talanova is no dilettante in versification either — she commands all poetic meters with brilliance, deftly combining works within a collection to create the necessary through-running poetic rhythm. Indeed, talented people have not vanished from the Russian land!

Publications in journals

Talanova's poetry and prose have been published in literary journals of Russia and the Russian diaspora abroad, including Neva, Yunost, Moskva, Nash Sovremennik, Sever, and the Nizhny Novgorod journal "Nizhny Novgorod."^{[1][3][4][21][22]}

• "Nizhny Novgorod" (Nizhny Novgorod, 1997, no. 1; 2014, no. 1 (17); 2017, no. 2; 2018, no. 1; 2020, no. 5; 2022, no. 3, no. 6; 2023, no. 2; 2024, no. 1; 2025, no. 1, no. 5; 2026, no. 6)
• "Roman-zhurnal XXI vek" (Moscow, 2009, no. 10–11)
• "Istoki" (Krasnoyarsk, 2010; 2011, no. 1)
• "Yunost" (Moscow, 2010, no. 12; 2014, no. 7)
• "Argamak" (Naberezhnye Chelny, 2012, no. 1)
• "Sever" (Petrozavodsk, 2012, no. 3–6; 2014, no. 1–4; 2022, no. 3–4)
• "Vertikal. XXI vek" (Nizhny Novgorod, 2012, no. 36; 2013, no. 39)
• "Priroda i svet" (Moscow, 2012, no. 7)
• "Novaya Nemiga literaturnaya" (Minsk, 2012, no. 5; 2015, no. 3; 2018, no. 6; 2020, no. 6; 2023, no. 5; 2024, no. 6)
• "Sura" (Penza, 2013, no. 4)
• "Zolotoye runo" (Moscow, 2014, no. 1; 2016, no. 3)
• "Volga. XXI vek" (Saratov, 2014, no. 7–8; 2016, no. 3–4; 2019, no. 1–2; 2020, no. 7–8; 2021, no. 5; 2023, no. 4; 2024, no. 4)
• "Berega" (Kaliningrad, 2014, no. 4)
• "Neva" (Saint Petersburg, 2014, no. 11; 2025, no. 12)
• "Podyon" (Voronezh, 2015, no. 3)
• "Rabotnitsa" (Moscow, 2015, no. 10)
• "Rodnaya Ladoga" (Saint Petersburg, 2016, no. 1)
• "Zarubezhnyye zadvyorki" (Germany, 2016, no. 25, no. 28; 14.04.2017; 2017, no. 6 (36); 2018, no. 134; no. 154, 14.11.2018; no. 177, 01.11.2019)
• "Velikoross" (Moscow, 2016, no. 1; 2016, no. 83 (March); 2017, no. 96 (April))
• "Moskva" (Moscow, 2017, no. 3; 2024, no. 5)
• "Novy svet" (Toronto, 2018, no. 1 (19); 2023, no. 1 (39))
• "Nash sovremennik" (Moscow, 2020, no. 7)
• "LiTerra" (Moscow, 25.10.2020; 05.10.2022 (no. 5); 2023, no. 5; 2024, no. 5)
• "Gostiny dvor" (Orenburg, 2012, no. 40; 2016, no. 3 (54); 2021, no. 4 (20))
• "Yuzhnaya zvezda" (Stavropol, 2022, no. 2 (83))
• "Dron" (Belgorod, 2022, no. 1 (2))
• "Novy Oryol + XXI vek" (Oryol, 2023, no. 44)
• "Priokskiye zori" (Tula, 2023, no. 4)
• "Don" (Rostov-on-Don, 2023, no. 10–12)
• "TERANTELLA" (2024)
• Prose of finalists of the International Literary Prize "DIAS" (Kazan, 2024)
• "Topos" (Moscow, 18.10.2024; 04.11.2024; 11.11.2024; 24.01.2025)
• "Vtoroy Peterburg" (Saint Petersburg, 2024, no. 4)

Almanacs

Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow almanacs featuring Talanova's publications are listed according to the author's publication list.^[21][22]

• "Molodoy Geniy" ("Young Genius") (Moscow, 1992)
• "Zemlyaki" ("Compatriots") (Nizhny Novgorod, 2008, no. 7; 2010, no. 9; 2011, no. 11; 2013, no. 14; 2014, no. 17; 2015, no. 18; 2018, no. 24, no. 25; 2019, no. 27; 2020, no. 28, no. 29; 2021, no. 31; 2022, no. 32)
• "Nizhegorodtsy" ("Nizhny Novgorod residents") (Nizhny Novgorod, 2011)
• "Sozvuchye Muz" ("Harmony of the Muses") (Stuttgart, Germany, 2011, 2015)
• "Gostiny Dvor" ("Trading Arcade") (Orenburg, 2012, no. 40; 2016, no. 3 (54))
• "Rossiysky Kolokol" ("Russian Bell") (Moscow, 2012, no. 2; 2013, no. 3; 2018, "Vozrozhdeniye")
• "Literaturnaya Respublika" ("Literary Republic") (Moscow, 2013, no. 1)
• "Nevsky Almanakh" ("Nevsky Almanac") (Saint Petersburg, 2013, no. 3; 2022, no. 5; 2024, no. 5)
• "Atlanty" ("Atlantes") (Moscow, 2013, no. 1)
• "Literaturnyye Znakomstva" ("Literary Acquaintances") (Moscow, 2013, no. 4)
• "Novy Yeniseysky Literator" ("New Yenisei Writer") (Krasnoyarsk, 2015, no. 2)
• "Muza" ("Muse") (Moscow, 2015, no. 27)
• "Predlog.Com" (Moscow, 2015, no. 1)
• "Severnyye Tsvety" ("Northern Flowers") (Moscow, 2017)
• "Vitrazhi" ("Stained Glass") (Moscow, 2017, no. 4 (5))
• "Novy Kontinent" ("New Continent") (USA, 05.08.2018; 22.09.2022)
• "Kholm Poetov" ("Hill of Poets") (Nizhny Novgorod, 2017, no. 6; 2019, no. 7)
• "Russkoye Mezhdureche" ("Russian Interfluve") (Nizhny Novgorod, 2022, no. 3)
• "Den Poezii. XXI Vek. 2022–2023" ("Day of Poetry. 21st Century. 2022–2023") (Moscow, 2023) — poems

Collective anthologies

Translations of Talanova's poems have appeared in bilingual anthologies in Hungarian, Swedish, Italian, Japanese, French, Bulgarian, Polish, and Greek.^[1][21]

• *Feniks* (Nizhny Novgorod, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2016)
• *Prinesyonnoye vetrom ekho* ("Echo Carried by the Wind") — poetry anthology in Hungarian (Moscow, 2013)
• *Tsvetayevskiye kostry* (Moscow, 2014)
• *Luchshiye poety i pisateli Rossii* ("The Best Poets and Writers of Russia") (Moscow, 2013)
• *Literaturnoye dostoyaniye Rossii* ("Literary Heritage of Russia") (Moscow, 2013)
• *Rossiya — Ispaniya* ("Russia — Spain") (Moscow, 2014)
• *Bolshaya kniga laureatov* ("The Grand Book of Laureates") (Moscow, 2014)
• *Modern Russian Literature* (Moscow, 2014)
• The Anna Akhmatova anthology *Ya prishla k poetu v gosti…* ("I Came to the Poet as a Guest…") (Moscow, 2015)
• *Ot serdtsa k serdtsu velik yazyk lyubvi* (Från hjärta till hjärta) — Russian–Swedish anthology (Malmö — Moscow, 2015)
• *Zerkala* (Specchi) — Russian–Italian anthology (Moscow, 2015)
• *God literatury* ("Year of Literature") (Moscow, 2015)
• *Zolotaya osen* ("Golden Autumn") (Moscow, 2015)
• *Dusha* ("Soul") — Russian–Japanese anthology (Moscow, 2015)
• *La littérature russe contemporaine en français* (Moscow, 2016)
• *Vesna strokoy krasna* (Moscow, 2016)
• *Zolotye peski* ("Golden Sands") — Russian–Bulgarian anthology (Moscow, 2016)
• *Dusha dobru otkryla dveri* ("The Soul Has Opened Its Doors to Good") (Saint Petersburg, 2017)
• *Vsyo povtoryayu pervyy stikh…* ("I Keep Repeating the First Verse…") (Moscow, 2017)
• *Berega ognya i vody* (Brzegi ognia i wody) (Moscow, 2017)
• *Priznaniye v lyubvi* ("Declaration of Love") (Moscow, 2018)
• *Ellada* ("Hellas") — Russian–Greek anthology (Moscow, 2018)
• *Koromyslova bashnya* (Nizhny Novgorod, 2021)

Newspapers

Galina Bochkova's first poems appeared in Gorky newspapers in 1970–1971; in 1992–1993, her poetry was regularly published in the Dzerzhinsk newspaper *Znamya*.^[1][21]

• *Gorkovskiy Rabochiy* (Gorky, 1970)
• *Leninskaya Smena* (Gorky, 1971; 1989)
• *Zemlya Nizhegorodskaya* (Nizhny Novgorod, 1992)
• *Znamya* (Dzerzhinsk, 1992–1993)
• *Literaturnaya Rossiya* (Moscow, 2010, no. 8; 2013, no. 23; 2016, no. 38; 07.03.2017)
• *Den literatury* (Moscow, 2011, no. 1; 2015, no. 12; March 2017; 09.09.2022; 16.10.2024)
• *Novaya Gazeta* in Nizhny Novgorod (2011, no. 193)
• *Obshchepisatelskaya Literaturnaya Gazeta* (Moscow, 2014, no. 11)
• *Rossiysky Pisatel* (March 2017; December 2022; December 2023; 15.01.2024)
• *Moskovskiy Zheleznodorozhnik* (Moscow, 2018, no. 44)

Critical Articles about the Writer

A list of reviews and articles about the books of Galina Talanova.^[20]

• Lyudmila Sipko. Genre and Style Innovation in Galina Talanova's Prose Collection *Blue Ocean* // Vertikal. XXI vek. — 2013. — No. 41. — Pp. 185–193.
• Lyudmila Sipko. By the Laws of a Free Genre // Sever. — 2013. — No. 9–10. — Pp. 226–229.
• Lyudmila Sipko. "The Soul of Love Is Open": The Poetic Style of Galina Talanova // Vertikal. — 2012. — Iss. 37. — Pp. 173–178.
• Anna Kuznetsova on Galina Talanova's novel *Blue Ocean* // Znamya. — 2011. — No. 2.
• Natalya Pervova (on the novel *Running on the Edge*) // Argamak. — 2014. — No. 2 (19). — P. 224.
• Literaturnaya Gazeta. — 19.03.2014. — No. 11 (6454).
• Aleksandr Aseevsky // The Soul of Love Is Open. Poems. — N. Novgorod: Vertikal XXI vek, 2009.
• Concise Bibliographic Reference. — N. Novgorod: Knigi, 2009.
• Buklya's review of the novel *Fireflies in the Wind* — https://buklya.com/svetlyachki-na-vetru.html
• Subkultura: review and interview on the novel *Fireflies in the Wind* — https://sub-cult.ru/literatura/novinki-literatura/9037-galina-talanova-svetljachki-na-vetru
• Aleksandra Bagrechevskaya. *Fireflies in the Wind*. Review of the novel — http://md-eksperiment.org/post/20171117-svetlyachki-na-vetru-recenziya-na-roman
• Aleksandra Bagrechevskaya. *Fireflies in the Wind*. Review of the novel — http://bookfriends.club/2018/01/svetlyachki-na-vetru/
• *Running on the Edge* — through the pages of Galina Talanova's book — https://buklya.com/beg-po-krayu.html
• Evgeniya Melemina on the novel *Running on the Edge* — https://www.livelib.ru/reader/MelEva/reviews
• Aleksandra Bagrechevskaya on the novel *Running on the Edge* — http://bookfriends.club/2017/05/beg-po-krayu/
• Yaroslav Kaurov on the novel *Running on the Edge* // Zarubezhnyye Zadvvorki. — 2017. — No. 6 (36). — P. 88. — http://za-za-verlag.net/bumzur/za-za-36.pdf
• Darya Sipinskaya on the novel *Running on the Edge* — https://sub-cult.ru/literatura/novinki-literatura/8719-galina-talanova-beg-po-krayu
• Yaroslav Kaurov. "…And I Am Alone in the July Paradise…" // Sever. — 2017. — No. 9–10. — Pp. 236–237. — http://www.sever-journal.ru/assets/Issues/2017/-09-10.2017/Sever2017.09-10s236-237.polka.Kaurov.pdf
• Yaroslav Kaurov. A Novel in Verse // Volga. XXI vek. — 2017. — No. 7–8. — Pp. 178–179. — https://web.archive.org/web/20160809010139/https://volga21vec.jimdo.com/электронная-версия-журнала
• *Running on the Edge*. A Novel by Galina Talanova — http://md-eksperiment.org/post/20170529-beg-po-krayu-roman-galiny-talanovoj
• Aleksandra Bagrechevskaya on the novel *Fireflies in the Wind* ("A book about how unexpectedly, unforeseeably, and irreparably a person disappears") // Uchitelskaya Gazeta. — No. 12, 20 March 2018. — https://web.archive.org/web/20191015042115/http://www.ug.ru/archive/73908
• Lyudmila Sipko. "The Chip Was on Red, but Black Came Up" // Nizhny Novgorod. — 2018. — No. 2. — Pp. 176–185. — https://web.archive.org/web/20180724141051/http://lit-nn.ru/index-name-files-op-view-id-13.html
• Oleg Makosha on the novel *Fireflies in the Wind* // Zemlyaki. — 2018. — No. 24. — P. 427.
• Aleksandra Bagrechevskaya. "And the Light — It Is There, Behind…" (on the novel *On the Waves, on the Oceans…*) — https://ohtapress.ru/2020/08/08/talanovoy/
• Elena Kryukova on the novel *Run or Die* (Sever. — 2022. — No. 3–4. — Pp. 186–249) // Russkiy Akademicheskiy Zhurnal, portal "Pechorin.net" — https://pechorin.net/raz/341
• Vera Shirokova. Review and interview on the poetry collection *Water Runs, Rocking Light and Shadows…* — https://sub-cult.ru/literatura/novinki-literatura/13762-lyubov-i-odinochestvo-v-stikhotvoreniyakh-galiny-talanovoj

Interviews with the author

Conversations with Talanova Galina about her novels and her path into literature.^{[12][10][23][29]}

• Interview with Talanova Galina by V. Grechkova — http://md-eksperiment.org/post/20170618-intervyu-s-galinoj-talanovoj
• Interview with "Buklya" — https://buklya.com/galina-talanova-intervyu.html
• Talanova Galina at the 30th Moscow International Book Fair (video) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UseWEjr8Wlo
• Darya Sipinskaya interviews Talanova Galina — https://sub-cult.ru/literatura/novinki-literatura/9037-galina-talanova-svetljachki-na-vetru
• Talanova Galina: "They say I write poetry in prose." Interview by A. Bagrechevskaya — http://ohtapress.ru/2017/06/12/talanova/
• Elizaveta Titovna interviews Talanova Galina — https://sub-cult.ru/interview/11369-galina-talanova-po-volnam-po-okeanam

Links

Official pages of the writer, recordings of her readings, and collections of her works.^[1]

• Official website — http://talanovagal.ucoz.ru (web archive copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20180302152905/http://talanovagal.ucoz.ru)
• Website of NPO "Diagnosticheskiye Sistemy" — http://www.npods.ru/about
• Video on YouTube: Talanova Galina reads her poetry to music — https://www.youtube.com/user/2oblako (copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20201010005528/https://www.youtube.com/user/2oblako)
• Video on "My World": Talanova Galina reads her poetry — https://my.mail.ru/list/galabb/video (copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20260712063736/https://my.mail.ru/list/galabb/video)
• Video on Rutube: Talanova Galina reads her poetry — https://rutube.ru/video/person/1340999/ (copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20210122105249/https://rutube.ru/video/person/1340999/)
• Talanova Galina on Stihi.ru — http://www.stihi.ru/avtor/ntybyfcntyt (copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20260511153636/http://www.stihi.ru/avtor/ntybyfcntyt)
• Talanova Galina on Proza.ru — http://www.proza.ru/avtor/ntybyfcntyt (copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20160304230557/http://www.proza.ru/avtor/ntybyfcntyt)
• Personal website of Elvira Bochkova — https://bochkovaelvira.ucoz.ru/index/0-2 (copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20151207233313/https://bochkovaelvira.ucoz.ru/index/0-2)

Sources

1. talanovagal.ucoz.ru — Official website of Galina Talanova — biography, awards, and list of books — Galina Talanova (archive)
2. web.archive.org — Personal website of poet Elvira Bochkova — biography (web archive copy, 2015) (archive)
3. reading-hall.ru — Neva, 2014, No. 11 — a selection of poems and author's note (electronic version) — Poems. Galina Talanova (archive)
4. reading-hall.ru — Nash Sovremennik, 2020, No. 7 — selection "I Remember March…" and author's note — Galina Talanova
5. cyclowiki.org — Cyclopedia — list of laureates of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Prize named after A. M. Gorky — Laureates of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Prize named after A. M. Gorky
6. sever-journal.ru — Sever, 2017, No. 9–10 — Yaroslav Kaurov on the novels of Galina Talanova — "…And I Am Alone in the July Paradise…" (archive)
7. ug.ru — Uchitelskaya Gazeta, No. 12, 20 March 2018 — Alexandra Bagrechevskaya on the novel Fireflies in the Wind — A Book About How Unexpectedly, Unforeseeably, and Irreversibly a Person Departs
8. sub-cult.ru — Subkultura — review of the novel Running on the Edge (2017) — Galina Talanova (archive)
9. sub-cult.ru — Subkultura — review of the novel Fireflies in the Wind and interview with the author (2017) — Galina Talanova (archive)
10. sub-cult.ru — Subkultura — interview about the novel On the Waves, Across the Oceans (2020) — Galina Talanova (archive)
11. sub-cult.ru — Subkultura — review of the poetry collection The Water Runs, Rocking Light and Shadow… — Love and Solitude in the Poems of Galina Talanova (archive)
12. ohtapress.ru — Okhta Press Center — interview by Alexandra Bagrechevskaya (2017) — Galina Talanova: "They Say I Write Poetry in Prose" (archive)
13. ohtapress.ru — Okhta Press Center — Alexandra Bagrechevskaya on the novel On the Waves, Across the Oceans… (2020) — And the Light — It Is There… Behind… (archive)
14. pechorin.net — Pechorin.net, Russian Academic Journal — review by Elena Kryukova of Sever No. 3–4, 2022 — Review of the Journal Sever (archive)
15. god-literatury.ru — God Literatury — long list of the Fazil Iskander Prize (2022) — Winners and Long List of the Fazil Iskander Prize
16. muzlitpenza.ru — Association of Literary Museums of Penza Region — Kuprin Competition "Granatovy Braslet," shortlist 2022 — Kuprin Creative Competition "Granatovy Braslet" (archive)
17. booksite.ru — Vologda Regional Research Library — shortlist of the "Zvezda Poley" Competition named after N. Rubtsov (2023) — Final Jury Session of the Contemporary Poetry Competition "Zvezda Poley" (archive)
18. rospisatel.ru — Rossiysky Pisatel — results of the 6th International Literary Competition named after A. N. Pleshcheyev (2026) — Results of the Sixth International Literary Competition named after A. N. Pleshcheyev
19. vtoroypeterburg.ru — Vtoroy Peterburg — author's note and selection of poems — Galina Talanova (archive)
20. talanovagal.ucoz.ru — Official website of Galina Talanova — critical reviews of books — Critics on the Books (archive)
21. talanovagal.ucoz.ru — Official website of Galina Talanova — list of publications up to 2022 (archive)
22. talanovagal.ucoz.ru — Official website of Galina Talanova — list of publications from 2023 — Continued List of Publications from 2023 (archive)
23. buklya.com — Buklya — interview with Galina Talanova (2017) (archive)
24. md-eksperiment.org — on the novel Running on the Edge (2017) — a novel about solitude (archive)
25. talanovagal.ucoz.ru — Official website of Galina Talanova — awards and diplomas
26. talanovagal.ucoz.ru — Official website of Galina Talanova — on the release of the novel Red Moon (2021) — New Novel "Red Moon" (archive)
27. web.archive.org — Official website of Galina Talanova — biography (web archive copy, 2018) — Galina Talanova (archive)
28. web.archive.org — Official website of Galina Talanova — home page (web archive copy, 2018) — Galina Talanova (archive)
29. md-eksperiment.org — interview by V. Grechkova with Galina Talanova (2017) — Interview with Galina Talanova (archive)