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John Kolchak

Goodreads Author

Born

in Moscow, Russian Federation

Website

http://www.johnkolchak.com

Twitter

johnkolchak

Genre

Fiction, Historical Fiction, Poetry

Member Since

April 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/kolchak

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John Kolchak is a Russian-born American novelist and poet.

He has worked as a translator, notably on the HBO historical drama miniseries “Chernobyl”, guarded the world’s greatest aesthetic treasures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art armed only with a whistle, wrote copy for various erotic publications, and currently struggles to maintain a mildly profligate lifestyle in Los Angeles. His hobbies include fiddling while Rome burns.

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John Kolchak’s books

Average rating: 3.2 · 104 ratings · 39 reviews · 7 distinct works • Similar authors

	Next Year in Jerusalem liked it 3.00 avg rating — 40 ratings — published 2015 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Haymarket Square: The Story of Alex Bobrov by John Kolchak (Goodreads Author), Scott Corken (Illustrator) 3.52 avg rating — 25 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Eternal Return 3.30 avg rating — 23 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Man in the Brown Suit 3.06 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 2014	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Magic Afternoon: Selected Poems 2008-2019 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	El año que viene en Jerusalén by John Kolchak (Goodreads Author), Javier Gómez Tejeda (translator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Haymarket Square by John Kolchak (2012-02-01) by John Kolchak (Goodreads Author), Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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The Longest Mile

by Rena Gazaway

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Jun 21, 2023 03:55PM

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Ghost Train to the Eastern Star

by Paul Theroux

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May 05, 2023 03:03PM

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Шатуны

by Yuriy Mamleev

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Mar 07, 2023 11:37AM

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John made a comment on Vit Babenco’s review of Apollon Bezobrazov " Apollo the Ugly is a candidate but a closer translation would be Apollo the Hideous. It would have been better if the translator used the English vers ...more "
Mar 20, 2024 09:02PM · see review
John liked Jack Blare's review of The Eternal Return: "The Eternal Return by John Kolchak follows the life and lies of an unreliable narrator named Lucky. Lucky is an aspiring writer who takes a trip to New York City to finish his book where he reflects on his past relationships and ends up meeting the m" Read more of this review »
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“Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps 20. And yet it all seems limitless.”
― Paul Bowles

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This group is dedicated to connecting readers with Goodreads authors. It is divided by genres, and includes folders for writing resources, book websit ...more

¡ POETRY ! — 22589 members — last activity Dec 24, 2025 01:37PM
No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read it!) Goodreads honors wordsmiths: poets and poetry promoted and prompted here. ~~~ "Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits." -- Carl Sandburg “God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” —Anne Sexton On Clouds – “…what primitive tastes the ancients must have had if their poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist, idiotically jostling one another about…” —Yevgeny Zamyatin “If the poet wants to be a poet, the poet must force the poet to revise. If the poet doesn’t wish to revise, let the poet abandon poetry and take up stamp-collecting or real estate.” —Donald Hall “Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.” —Boris Pasternak “Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.” —Charles Simic “Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.” —Gustave Flaubert “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” —Allen Ginsberg. ~~~~~ Amy King, Moderator Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the WNBA Award (Women’s National Book Association). Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She serves on the executive board of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and is co-editing with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology, Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She is also co-editing the anthology, Bettering American Poetry 2015, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College. ...more

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