Martha M. F. Kelly (NHC Fellow, 2022–23)

Fellowship Work Summary, 2022–23

Martha M. F. Kelly used her fellowship year on groundwork for writing the final sections of her work in progress, How to Be a Russian Icon: The Public Life of Poet Olga Sedakova. She organized much of her wide-ranging research in preparation for building a database, and transcribed numerous interviews. She finalized the book’s theoretical framework, planned out its unconventional structure, and wrote key portions of several chapters. She submitted for publication final proofs of “Poetry and Orthodoxy” for the Oxford Handbook of Russian Poetry, edited by Catherine Ciepiela, Stephanie Sandler and Luba Golburt (forthcoming 2023). She also submitted for publication her full translation of Olga Sedakova’s 1980–1981 volume of verse, Old Songs (Slant Books, forthcoming 2023), with a preface by Rt. Revd. and Rt. Hon. Dr. Rowan Williams.