Vladimir Novikov (b. 1948, Omsk) - literary critic, critic, doctor of philological sciences, author of books about V. Kaverin (co-authored with O. Novikova), about Yu. Tynyanov (co-authored with V. Kaverin), about Vysotsky, about literary parody, collections of articles "Dialogue" and "Zaskok," the first in Russia "Dictionary of fashionable words," the prose book "Romance with a language." To enter into a love affair with literature is what Vl. Novikov calls us in his new book, "as living with living speaking" with Pushkin, Kozma Prutkov, Khlebnikov, Tynyanov, Shklovsky, Okudzhava, Vysotsky. Vl. Novikov has only one enemy - boredom, which he constantly exposes and learns, while trying to find and support life in modern poetry and prose.