WHERE does Georgian poetry stand today

Georgian authors have never missed the opportunity to read and reflect on what others think and write. Accordingly, the translation and publication of Georgian poetic works internationally is unreservedly imperative. The insights and concerns of modern Georgian poetry are suffused with deeply philosophical, sophisticated and mature voices, questioning the achievability of any logical assumptions, conclusions and explanations of the human role in the universe in which the future is “obscure and insecure”

Author: Inga Zhgenti

Theses on Paata Shamugia`s poetry

Paata Shamugia's Poetry is a flower in the post-Soviet Georgia’s trash. The trash which, according to the rules, only used for construction materials. Paata's poetry has nothing to do with ecology, and the rubbish is represented here as the unity of forms of dominant sensitivity, that absorb everything like black holes. The poetic project of Paata Shamugia does not mean garbage cleaning works. He aims to gradually transform trash into something else. Hence, his project is radical.

Author: Giorgi Khasaia

Paata Shamugia as a project

Paata is a project. He goes up in geometric progression. He always has answers about society, people, church, government etc. And these answers usually are ironic. And self-ironic. That's why he is so different. He loves to turn things upside down. 

Author: Eka Kevanishvili

Schizo Poems - intersection of poetic and mathematical logics

The first thing I noticed, and what makes it difficult to present the book [Shizo Poems], is that the book is very quotable. Here, you can turn to any page and find an impressive quote. And a quote not just for the sake of a quote, but a quote as a powerful social message, a slogan, a motto; as a sample of working with intertextuality; as a new, very strange fruit conceived in the intersection of poetic and mathematical logics; as operating on the details of an old lyric to set a precedent for a new lyric; as a meta-metaphor; as a mutation of opposite phenomena; As a retort, said in the tragicomic scene of the war of values

Author: Shota Iatashvili

No category of readers can remain indifferent to him

No category of readers can remain indifferent to him. Some people - and mostly his peers or the younger generation - consider Paata as their idol, some people curse him and put a thousand unpleasant labels on him. They claim that he is a "freemason", "cosmopolitan", "blasphemous", "blasphemous" and of "non-traditional orientation".

Of these labels, the one that I personally think is a little closer to the truth is the poet's "unconventional orientation", but, obviously, this does not mean an alternative type of sexual activity at all. Paata Shamugia is unconventional in relation to poetic traditions, and this attitude was clearly expressed in the title of his first famous work.

Author: Giorgi Lobzhanidze

Schizo Poems, Paata Shamugia

Paata Shamugia is a Georgian writer with a reputation for encouraging a healthy disrespect of traditional political and religious values. ‘Schizo Poems’ is a selection from his 2015 prize-winning book and was compiled for last summer’s Ledbury Poetry Festival, sponsored by Versopolis — a European-wide platform enabling poets to reach wider audiences.  

Author: Candyce Lange

Shamugia's oblique gaze pierces our surreal and absurd world

With stormy and often harsh language Shamugia captures the political and social life of his country ( You know that/the problem with the Soviet Union was/that everything was forbidden/whereas the problem with the post-Soviets is/that everything is compulsory?) and not hesitates to publicly refer to persons and situations when necessary. He is the poet who writes about the difficult everyday life in Georgia, the impoverishment of its inhabitants and the uprooting, corruption and illegal enrichment of politicians, but also the profound conservatism and religiousness of Georgian society.

Author: Christina Kapetanopoulou

Paata Shamugia's poetry - dynamite, capable of blowing up any bridge

"Language. At the border of communication. Customs but also a pass. Bridge. From concept to word and vice versa. But also dynamite, capable of blowing up any bridge. Able to cause storms. In the case of Paata Samugia, by all accounts one of the most important contemporary poets of Georgia, the storm came with his very first book, in 2007 (he was then 24 years old and I mention it because of its importance) … His manner shocks, but his words never cease to have substance."

Author: Giorgos Rouskas

Shamugia's writing - storming, absolute and relentless

Paata Shamugia's writing storming. Absolute and relentless. He doesn't mince his words. He caresses no one's ears. Refers to public figures and situations by their name. He does not beautify political and social life in Georgia with beautiful expressions and romantic lyrics. Reality is harsh in his country, therefore the poet's writing is also harsh. Sometimes he mocks and mocks. Sometimes he scorns with loud words the morals and customs of his country. He provokes with his poetry. Its aim is to provoke. He wants to shake up the waters; perhaps the stagnant waters of a society which, in the poet's eyes, is disintegrating, and which stinks and heats up in his nostrils.

Author: Katerina Liatzoura

When poetry captures the spirit of the times, the Paata Shamugia effect

Simple know-how would not be enough. This is why we should salute the total success of Paata Shamugia's "Schizo-poems", which manages to combine the two in a continuous manner, seeming to play with the rules and limits of poetry, while reaching its deep foundations.

Author: Pascal Perrot