______________________________________

Write what you want to read, they say. I’m drawn to the paradox. Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, great truths masquerading as small lies, heroes playing fools. Juxtaposition of the magical and the mundane is irresistible to me.

Writing speculative fiction allows me to share the sense of awe, wonder and danger you experience when you peek under the lining of reality. I’m fascinated by the thin line between the real and the fantastical, rational and irrational, and the games our mind plays. Inspired by mythology and folklore, my stories unfold in liminal spaces and subvert—hopefully!—a trope or two.

---

A Little History

I was born in Moscow when it was the capital of a now extinct empire, and I had a chance to experience both the security and the subjugation of the totalitarian state. In retrospect, it was a winning combination of a happy childhood and a subversive youth. When the country I knew disintegrated like planet Krypton in front of my eyes, the shockwave of that explosion blew me across the world. I’ve landed on the island of Manhattan and have considered myself a New Yorker ever since.

These days, I live at the edge of the last natural forest on the island with my husband, a digital animator, sharing our old apartment with an ever-expanding library and a spoiled English bulldog.

I studied psychology as an undergrad and later received a Master’s in humanities from NYU. My creative nonfiction was published in a few literary magazines; a young adult fantasy Print In The Snow won an IPPY gold medal; the manuscript of Over The Hills Of Green was a finalist in the Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. I am a member of WFWA.