Crossing Centuries focuses on transformations in Russian poetry from the 1970s to the present with particular attention to the Brezhnev years and the profound changes in language and values that followed the collapse of the Soviet regime. The new poetry provides important insights into the interlocking worlds of poetry and politics as well as insights into the effect that postmodern sensibilities have had outside western Europe and the United States. The anthology gives particular attention to poetry by women, by gays, and by ethnic minorities in a culture that at its core remains deeply traditional and is still strongly dominated by men and conventional male values.

The book is the final and most ambitious project undertaken by the Russian/American Cultural Exchange Program, founded in 1993 to increase dialogue between writers in the two countries. Other projects have included a series of literary conferences in Russia and in the United States, visits by Russian writers to America, an anthology of contemporary American poetry in Russian translation, and books of selected works by Vadim Mesyats and Ivan Zhdanov in English translation. Crossing Centuries began with visits by the editors to Moscow and St. Petersburg where they met with both established and avant-garde writers -- meetings which were widely reported in Russian newspapers and on Russiantelevision. The book is eagerly anticipated in Russia (where it will be published in a bilingual edition) as the first attempt by the West to gain a comprehensive view of radical transformations in one of the world's preeminent literatures.