What I cover
- New fiction in Russian and English, including first novels and books in translation
- Contemporary Russian-language writing by authors working outside Russia
- Classic authors read again for a general audience, from a working writer rather than an academic
- Poetry, including poets whose careers span the late Soviet period and the present
- Festivals, book fairs and literary events, covered as reporting rather than listings
- Who pays for literature now: prizes, patrons, publishing money
Selected criticism in other publications
Every piece below is live and can be read in full. Dates are publication dates.
- London Book Fair 2026: review Reporting from the fair, on what the trade was actually buying.
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's long road back to fiction On a decade of silence and the book that ended it.
- A guide to the voices of modern Israel Contemporary Israeli writing for a reader starting from nothing.
- Arkady Strugatsky: the moral cartographer Essay on the elder Strugatsky and the ethics inside the science fiction.
- The new literary patrons Who pays for literature now, and what the money asks for in return.
- Henry David Thoreau's Walden, or Life in the Woods A classic read back against the way it is usually quoted.
- Yulia Zolotova's novel 'Eastern Empire' Review of a novel that asks what art is for in an age of endless commercialisation. Published in Bulgarian.
- Anonymous Letters: Dubinina's descent into the British mists Long-form review of a prose work and the story behind it. Published in Bulgarian.
- The Nobel Prize: geopolitical and gender quotas? On how the literature prize is decided and what that does to reading.
Festivals and conferences
- Recurring speaker at the Paris Russian book salon Reported by Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Panels and readings on contemporary writing.
- Speaker, Indo-Russian conference on literature and translation On translation and the circulation of literature between languages.
In Creativity's UK
I founded the arts magazine Creativity's UK in 2022 and edit it, so these are my own pages rather than another editor's commission. They are here to show range and register.
- Why we cannot stop reading William Topaz McGonagall On the worst poet in the language, and why bad verse survives.
- Always Zoya: the woman who edited an era turns 102 Portrait of an editor, and of what editing did to a literature.
- Paris Salon du Livre Russe: finding literature's pulse in winter Paris Festival reporting, filed from the salon.
- Tolstoy versus Oscar Wilde: the beard, the boutonnière and the lie Two moralists set against each other, essay length.
- Ghosts in the machine: Remarque's enduring chronicle Essay on a body of work and why it keeps being reissued.
My own writing, and how it has been read
I publish fiction and poetry as well as criticism. Books include Nutcracker (Union of Russian Writers, 2016; English edition 2024) and Merging with Light (FormaT, St Petersburg, 2018). Stories have appeared in the literary journals Moskva, Ice and Flame, Irtysh-Om and Tara Gates.
The poet and critic Dmitry Bobyshev, writing in Moskva, described the stories as "guileless village stories with simple plots". In Literaturnaya Gazeta, the critic Vera Linkova called one of them a "tender and subtle story".
Awards and membership
- Laureate, New Amazons International Literary Competition, 2022
- Longlisted, Fazil Iskander International Literary Award, prose category, 2022
- Diploma, International Tyutchev Literary Competition, 2017
- Diploma, Anna Akhmatova Competition, 2015, and the all-Russian competition Front Line, 2020
- Member, Union of Russian Writers, and of the PEN Centre
- Member, International Federation of Journalists
- Best Newcomer, documentary category, SIFFA UK Film Festival, 2025, for a film about the poet Lydia Grigorieva
- Reference: Wikipedia entry
Formats
- Book review, 600 to 1,500 words, on a new title or a reissue
- Author essay reading a body of work rather than a single book
- Interview with a writer, edited for print or as a transcript
- Festival and fair reporting, filed from the event
- Preface, afterword and jacket copy for publishers
- Jury and reading work for prizes, competitions and open calls
Languages
I write in Russian and in English. I read manuscripts in both, and I am comfortable writing about a book in one language for readers in the other, which is most of what diaspora criticism requires. Where a piece is to be translated, I check the translation before it runs.
Commissioning
Editors and publishers are welcome to write directly. Send the book or the manuscript, the format, the word count and the deadline. For an unpublished manuscript, tell me what stage it is at and what kind of reading you want. I reply within two working days.
Fees are agreed per commission and quoted on request. They depend on length, reading time, travel and rights.
The commissioning publication sets the brief and holds editorial control. Authors and publishers do not get copy approval on a review, and I say so before I take the work.