Dina Rubina was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 1953, studied music in the Tashkent Conservatory, moved to Moscow in the mid-1980s, and then to Israel in 1990. She returned to Russia for three years at the turn of the 21st century as Israel's cultural liaison, and now resides in a suburb of Jerusalem. Rubina is one of the most widely read Russian writers of today. Her recent novel, On the Sunny Side of the Street (Na solnechnoi storone ulitsy), won first place in Russia's Radio Booker Literary Award (2007), third place in the Big Book Literary Prize (2007), and was short-listed for the Russian Booker (2006). Her dozens of other books include the novels The Syndicate (Syndikat, 2004) and Here Comes the Messiah! (Vot idet Messiya!, 1996), and the collection On Upper Maslovka (Na Verkhnei Maslovke, 2001). Her newest novel is Leonardo's Handwriting (Pocherk Leonardo, 2008). Her work has won awards in Uzbekistan, Israel, and France, and has been translated into 12 languages. Her novel, Here Comes the Messiah!, is available in English translation by Daniel M. Jaffe, as are several of her shorter pieces.

In the three years since his first book was published, Oleg Zaionchkovsky (b. 1959) has gained the widespread admiration of critics and readers alike, a fact which appears to have taken the author himself by surprise. Until his recent move to Moscow, Zaionchkovsky had spent his entire adult life in the small town of Khotkovo, outside the capital, where he met his future wife at school at the age of thirteen, and where he worked as a metal worker and electrical engineer before trying his hand at prose at his wife's insistence. The result was Sergeev and the Little Town (Sergeev i gorodok, 2005), a book of short stories describing small-town byt (daily life). Marketed by its publishers, OGI, as a novel, it was immediately short-listed for the Russian Booker Prize. Petrovich came out that same year. Taking the reader through Petrovich's childhood and adolescence, it prompts comparison with other treatments of early life in the Russian literary tradition (by Lev Tolstoy, Sergei Aksakov and others).

The winner of Russian Booker Prize 2006. Director of “Debut” Prize. Grew up in Yekaterinburg in the Urals where she majored in journalism. A literary editor and critic, Slavnikova is the author of three widely acclaimed novels: A Dragon-fly the Size of a Dog, short-listed for the Russian Booker Prize (1997); Alone in the Mirror, short-listed for the Anti-Booker and winner of the Pavel Bazhov Prize; and Immortal, awarded the Critics' Academy Apollon Grigoriev Prize and short-listed for both the Belkin Prize and the National Bestseller Prize.

Born in 1960. Poet, critic, translator, and science fiction writer with ten SF books to her credit. A graduate from Odessa University majoring in marine biology she took part in several sea expeditions. She has been a professional writer since 1995. She has won many prizes for both her prose and poetry. Her fiction contains a strong element of magic realism while gender issues have always been the focus of her attention.
She has been nominated for the Russian Booker and short-listed for the Russian Critics Academy Award. Iramifications was awarded the International Portal Prize.

Interpreting Russia
This issue is dedicated to the short-listed finalists and the Winner of the first Rossica Prize.

Interpreting Russia
This issue is dedicated to the short-listed finalists and the Winner of the first Rossica Prize.

The winner of Russian Booker Prize 2006. Director of “Debut” Prize. Grew up in Yekaterinburg in the Urals where she majored in journalism. A literary editor and critic, Slavnikova is the author of three widely acclaimed novels: A Dragon-fly the Size of a Dog, short-listed for the Russian Booker Prize (1997); Alone in the Mirror, short-listed for the Anti-Booker and winner of the Pavel Bazhov Prize; and Immortal, awarded the Critics' Academy Apollon Grigoriev Prize and short-listed for both the Belkin Prize and the National Bestseller Prize.

The Ties of Blood
Russian Literature from the 21st Century
This edition of Rossica takes on a new form! It is an Anthology of New Russian Writing, featuring both prose and poetry translated into English and edited by leading specialists.
The issue was launched at the first Russian Literature Week, in April 2008.