David Dephy
David Dephy (Georgian: დავით დეფი, born June 21, 1968), also known as David Dephy Gogibedashvili, is a Georgian/American poet, novelist, essayist, performer, multimedia artist and painter, and the founder of the first Georgian poetic order Samkauly. He is the author of ten novels and 12 collections of verse. His short story "Before The End" was chosen for inclusion in the anthology Best European Fiction 2012, edited by Aleksandar Hemon and prefaced by Nicole Krauss, and published in the U.S. by Dalkey Archive Press.
Dephy's first book-length work in English, the 2014 novel All the World's Mysteries, is forthcoming in Spring 2019 from MadHat Press with a translation from the Georgian by Adham Smart.
Biography
Dephy was born in Tbilisi. He earned his undergraduate degree in 1992 from the Faculty of Architecture at the Tbilisi State Academy of Fine Arts. He began his career working in print media, radio, and television, where he created the program მზეRA (Mze-Ra) for the Georgian television station Meore Archi. From 1995 to 2000 he worked in cinema, collaborating with internationally famous film directors Otar Ioseliani and Nana Jorjadze, among others.
During the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, Dephy joined the army of volunteers and set up a headquarters of civil solidarity under his famous slogan "Stop Russia."
In 2010-2011 Dephy was an artist-in-residence at the writers’ society Ledig House in Ghent, New York. In 2011 his short story "Before the End" was selected for inclusion in Dalkey Archive Press's Best European Fiction series, as well as in Dalkey's anthology Contemporary Georgian Fiction, edited and translated by Elizabeth Heighway. That same year Dephy was invited to participate in the PEN World Voices Festival in New York City, where he presented a live poetry event entitled "The Second Skin" with Laurie Anderson, Yusef Komunyakaa and Salman Rushdie at the Unterberg Poetry Center, 92nd St Y.
Dephy's work has been anthologized in many collections of poetry and prose and has been published in the U.S., Mexico, Germany, Brazil and Georgia. From 2015-2017 he served as the Creative Consultant for Poetry & Prose at the University of Georgia. In 2017 he was chosen as an Ambassador of Poetry by Julius Meinl, and his live performance of The Poet King – The Easter Verses at the Peace Cathedral of Georgia and the Evangelical-Baptist Church of Georgia led to his poetry officially being included in the Divine Liturgies. Dephy is currently collaborating with Georgian rock band The Sanda on a bilingual English/Georgian multimedia project.
Major publications
- 1994: Dead Time, essays
- 1995: The Grotesque, stories
- 1996: Stories and Conceptions, stories & essays
- 2003: The December Talisman, a novel
- 2003: Expecting Miracles At Dawn, a novel
- 2003: Emerald and Sapphire, poems
- 2003: Words Words Words, dialogues
- 2003: Let My Twin Find Me, a novel
- 2004: The Ravage Trilogy: And, There, and Heaven, poems
- 2007: Samkauly, poems
- 2008: Demna Gedevanischvili, a novel
- 2009: Shinings, poems
- 2010: Da Iq Tsa, poems
- 2010: DNA Symphony, poems
- 2010:The Gardens and the Pandemonium, a novel
- 2011: Sevdya, poems
- 2012: "Before the End", Contemporary Georgian Fiction and Best European Fiction 2012; English language translation by Elizabeth Heighway
- 2012: Demna, a novel
- 2012: We All Will Get Out From Here Alive, poems
- 2014: All the World’s Mysteries, a novel
- 2014: The Society of the End and the Beginning, a novel
- 2014: God Is Among You, poems
- 2015: The Easter Verses, poems
- 2015: Absolute New York, poems
- 2016: The Poet King, a poem
- 2016: Crowned, a novel
- 2018: All the World's Mysteries, a novel; English language translation by Adham Smart
- 2018: The Same Fable, poems
Filmography
- 1996: Winner of the Grand Prix at the Venice Film Festival
- 1996: Brigands, Chapitre VII | Director Otar Ioseliani
- 2000: 27 Missing Kisses | Director: Nana Jorjadze
- 2002: Drongo | Director: Zinovi Roizman
- 2004: Delirium | Director: Tornike Bziava