I am the meat that Dmitry prepared.

“I am the meat that Zmitser cooked” is a daring, postmodern novel-labyrinth, where political violence and artistic search, escape and return, fear and the power of language intertwine. Zmitser Vishnev — a poet, artist and publisher, one of the most distinctive authors of his era, takes the reader through his personal hell — and offers to feel that all this is about us after all.

The bold and poetic sound creates a gloomy world in which everything has a double bottom. To play it safe, he (Zmitser Vishnev) ridicules everything, even his own fears. ( Tagesspiegel )

This is a ruthless book about loss and violence, and at the same time a tender book about love and friendship, about the joy of life and art. This novel is an escape from the dictator's slaughterhouse and a path to oneself. ( 33 books for a different Belarus )

A labyrinth novel that is reminiscent of Dante's journey to hell, Odysseus's voyage home, and a computer game where you have to find a way out and survive. Meetings with deceased friends and famous people: Uldis Berzins and Ales Rodin, Andrei Bitov and Edvard Munch, Jan Bryl and James Joyce - the hero's path in the mysterious time capsule will be winding, he will have to face his own fears and get to know himself.

Dmitry Vishnev — poet, novelist, artist, and publisher. One of the most influential figures on the independent cultural scene of Belarus and, with his prose texts, essays, and poems, one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Belarusian literature.

Z. Vishnev's texts exist and develop in a dynamic process with other forms of his artistic expression. He is one of the co-founders of the legendary artistic movement “Boom-Bam-Lit”, which in the 1990s sought to break the boundaries of literature and sought a synthesis of arts. The “Boom-Bam-Lit” movement gave rise, among other things, to the performance group “Special Brigade of African Brothers” led by Z. Vishnev, which provoked the official cultural establishment with its radical actions, and the literary community Schmerzwerk, which caused pain with its lyrical program. The participants in those projects were driven by concern for the revival of language and art, and their liberation from Soviet tradition.

Author of the books “Staff Tam-tam” (1998), “Tambourine Mosquito” (2001), “The Groundhog Ladder, or a Necrophilic Study of a Species of Rodents” (2002), “Birth Verification” (2005), “Pharaoh in the Zoo” (2007), “Castle Built of Nettles” (2010), “The Buzzard of Beetles” (2011), “Drunken Longboats” (2014), “If You Look Closely — Mars Is Blue” (2018). In 2014, the novel Das Brennessekhaus was published in German.

Z. Vishnev's work with text is accompanied by paintings. His surreal, fairy-tale paintings have been exhibited in Belarus and abroad, including at the Kunsthaus Tacheles (Berlin), the Museum of Nonconformist Art (St. Petersburg), and most recently at the Kulturstiftung Schloss Wiepersdorf.

In 2007, together with Mikhas Bashura, Z. Vishnev created the publishing house "Goliafy", which primarily published Belarusian-language literature and paid special attention to debut and forgotten works of the last century. The publishing house's activities and the sale of books in its own bookstore were banned by the regime in 2022. In the summer of 2022, Z. Vishnev left Belarus and was unable to return, as he had hoped, due to threats. He now lives in Germany.