Elena Dimov is a Russian language instructor and translator. Originally from Vladivostok, Russia, she has a MS degree in Oriental Studies from the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok and a PhD from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. For many years, Elena has developed Slavic collections at the UVA Library and taught courses in Russian language and culture. Her translation of Maria Rybakov’s Gnedich was published by Glagoslav. Her translations have also appeared in Boston University’s Arion journal and Cardinal Points literary journal.
Ewa Setaro
, a native of Poland, has specialized in Slavic cataloging at the University of Virginia Library for more than 30 years. Ewa studied Comparative Literature and Linguistics at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. Since 1980, she has worked at UVA library. Ewa has also taught Polish Language at UVA. Currently, Ewa is a Slavic bibliographer at UVA Library. She contributes bibliographic records searchable in our online library catalog Virgo.
Austin Smith is an American poet and novelist. He holds a degree in creative writing from the University of Virginia. Austin’s book of poetry, In the Silence of the Migrated Birds, was named one of the best books of poetry published in Wisconsin in 2008 by the Wisconsin Library Association Literary Awards Committee. The book’s title comes from a poem by Austin Smith’s father, the poet Daniel Smith. Austin Smith is the author of two collections, Flyover Country (2018) and Almanac (2013), both published by Princeton University Press. He is the recipient of a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and the Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship. He is currently the Jones Lecturer at Stanford University and lives in Schaumburg, Illinois. Austin contributes to the selection and editing of modern poetry for this project.
Michael Marsh-Soloway holds an M.A. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Virginia and a B.A. in History and Slavic Studies from Northwestern University. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate and plans to research the expansion of mathematical themes in Russian literature for his dissertation. In the summer of 2011, he studied in Ufa, Bashkortostan, on a Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State. He also studied in St. Petersburg at Herzen University in 2007 and at the Summer Workshop for Slavic and East European Languages at Indiana University in 2010. At UVa, he has taught Russian 101, 303, and LNGS 2240. He is currently an instructor of Russian at the University of Richmond. Michael contributes to the translation of contemporary Russian literature and web design.
Bud Woodward studied French and Russian at James Madison University. For more than ten years, he served as Librarian of Slavic Languages and Literatures at UVA. During his time at the UVA library, he initiated a number of projects in the field of Russian literature and culture. After his retirement in 2012, he continues to contribute to WorldCat bibliographic records.
Professor Yuri Urbanovich was born in Tblisi, the capital city of the Republic of Georgia. He received his M.A. in International Relations from the Moscow State University of International Relations in 1972, and his Ph.D. in International Relations from the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1984. In 1992, Dr. Urbanovich was invited by the University of Virginia’s Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction (CSMHI) to coordinate dialogues defusing the “velvet divorce” between Baltic States and the Soviet Union. Currently, Dr. Urbanovich is teaching three seminars, Post-Soviet Challenges: National Ethnicities, Rise & Fall of the Soviet Union,and America through Russian Eyes.
Kristina Uvarova translated the excerpt from Ostromov by Dmitrii Bykov. She is a student at Bashkir State Pedagogical University in Ufa majoring in linguistics, with specialties in French and English. This past year, she worked on various student radio programs. She is interested in foreign languages, contemporary Russian literature, diplomacy, and East Asian history.
Margarita Dimova graduated from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, majoring in Culture and Politics. Margarita has selected and translated several of Joseph Brodsky’s poems from Russian into English for this site and contributes to the selection, translation and editing of modern prose and poetry for this site.
We are grateful to publisher Natasha Sharymova from New York for kindly allowing us to use her photo of Joseph Brodsky. Natasha Sharymova, who was once forced to leave the USSR due to persecution, is one of the most remarkable figures of Russian emigration to the United States. She is a journalist, photographer, artist and producer based in New York. She has written for Novoe Russkoe Slovo (The New Russian Word), Novyi Amerikanets (New American), Radio Svoboda (Radio Liberty) and edited the magazine Tochka Zreniia (Viewpoint). Among the people she interviewed for her publications were Yoko Ono, Federico Fellini, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Kurt Wonnegut, Jean-Luc Godard, Allen Ginsberg, Vasily Aksyonov, Dmitry A. Prigov. Her famous photographic portraits include those of Joseph Brodsky, Lillian Gish, Catherine Deneuve, Andy Warhol, Roman Yakobson, Vladimir Vysotsky and others.
Alexander Borisenko is a photographer based in Vladivostok, Russia. His pictures are published by international media all over the world. We are grateful to him for kindly allowing us to use his work on this website.
Oleg Dimov from Masaryk University contributes to the translations of the contemporary Russian literature and editing.
