Hometown: Russia
Dates in Sitka: 2008-11
Maya Kucherskaya is a Russian novelist, fiction writer, literary critic and essayist. She has published two short story collections; the 2004 bestsellerModern Patericon: To Be Read in Times of Despair*; one novel Rain God*; a biography of Grand Duke Constantine Romanov, and a children’s adaptation of the New Testament. She holds a PhD in Literature from UCLA, and is a professor in the Department of Russian Literature at the Russian School of Economics. Maya’s awards include the 2007 Student Booker Prize and the 2006 Molodaya Gvardia Award. She contributes a column to the dailyVedomosti and cultural commentaries on radio broadcasts. (* English titles)
She came to Sitka through the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.