Contributors

We aim to highlight Russian-language books for children and young adults, and translations into English, from anywhere where Russian is spoken.

This website and project is entirely run by volunteers without any institutional funding. We are grateful for any contributions of reviews, news or interviews.

Please get in touch with one of the editors if you’d like to contribute: russophonekidlit@gmail.com

Editors

Ekaterina Shatalova holds a Master’s degree in Victorian Literature from the University of Oxford. She is a member of the Union of Translators of Russia who specialises in translating children’s TV shows and books. When not translating, she reviews books for British and Russian publishers. She is currently researching children’s literature at the University of Glasgow as an Erasmus Mundus scholar.

Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp is a literary translator who translates fiction and non-fiction from Russian, German and Arabic. She has translated children’s books from Germany, Morocco, Palestine, Russia, Switzerland and Syria. Ruth is also co-editor of ArabKidLitNow, and a regular contributor at World Kid Lit, and Words Without Borders.

Contributors

Olga Bukhina is a translator, a writer, a children’s books specialist, and an independent scholar based in New York City. She has translated over forty books from English into Russian: young readers’ novels, graphic novels, and picture books as well as historical fiction, non-fiction, and scholarly books. Olga has co-authored three children’s books for the Children’s Project of Ludmila Ulitskaya. She writes about children’s literature for various journals, collections, and online publications in Russian and in English. Her book The Ugly Duckling, Harry Potter, and Others: A Guide to Children’s Books About Orphans was published in Moscow.

Richard Coombes is a UK-based Russian to English literary translator, and writer. Recent publications include translations by Cambridge University Press and BODY magazine, and original stories published in Anti-Heroin Chic and Down in the Dirt.

Nina Murray is a Ukrainian-born American poet and translator. She holds advanced degrees in linguistics and creative writing. She is the author of the poetry collection Alcestis in the Underworld (Circling Rivers Press, 2019) as well as chapbooks Minimize Considered (Finishing Line Press, 2018), Minor Heresies (Heartland Review Press, 2020), and Damascus Electric (free to download from Pen & Anvil Press, 2020). Her translations from the Ukrainian include Oksana Zabuzhko The Museum of Abandoned Secrets and Oksana Lutsyshyna’s Ivan and Phoebe (forthcoming).

Alyona Timofeyeva is a writer, essayist, and drama critic from Kazakhstan. She is an alumna of Open Literature School of Almaty second-level prose and young writers programs. Alyona participated in Word/Movement  workshop by the International Writing Program. Her work has appeared in “Daktil” literary magazine,  «Литературная Алма-Ата» almanac, and on the internet (Manshuq, Әдеби портал, 5Q Media, Steppe, Orda). She studies international affairs at the KIMEP University.  

Siân Valvis is a British literary translator. Based in Europe and Brazil, she translates from Russian, French, Greek, and Portuguese. She has a MA in Translating and Interpreting from Bath University, and enjoys translating children’s literature – particularly folktales and fairytales.

Maria Wiltshire has a degree in English language and literature and is a freelance translator both from and into Russian. She translated Yana Vagner’s novel To the Lake and co-translated The Cats of St Petersburg and The Forgotten Autumn by Pyotr Vlasov, with Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp. She is also an amateur writer and had her first story published by Creative Writings School‘s annual almanac. Maria also reviews books for various publishers.