We love learning more about our contributors, and an interview seemed like a fun way to hear more about the writers and artists we publish, so we gave them a choice of questions to answer. We hope you also enjoy hearing more about the artists and their works. Read on and check out the Second Chances reprints special for
"How to Tell If a Student in Your Beginning Poetry Class Is a Russian Spy" from Olga Zilberbourg.

Or you can let them read to you!



What was the inspiration for the piece published in the issue?
In 2010, the FBI uncovered Russian "Illegals Program," a network of agents that had been embedded deep undercover across the United States. This was at the time when Putin was consolidating his power, but had not yet shown the full force of his authoritarian intent. These spies and their ineptitude was widely ridiculed in the US-based media, but at the same time the scandal also revived the notion of spies as a tool of international politics and a potential threat. One particular news item attracted my attention: one of the spies took a class with Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of International Affairs in New York City. Khrushcheva was great-granddaughter of a Soviet head of state Nikita Khrushchev, who came to the US in the 1990s to receive her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature. I, too, came to the United States in the 1990s, and had recently graduated with a degree in Comp lit -- my route to the profession being somewhat more circuitous. The interview with Khrushcheva fascinated me and brought up complicated emotions: in the 1990s and early 2000s I passionately believed in the possibility of a peaceful future for both post-Soviet Russia and the United States. I believed in the dream of international cooperation and partnership. The story of the spies undermined that dream, and I was particularly disturbed by how easily my naivete turned into paranoia. Once I heard that there were spies among us, everyone in my immigrant community and beyond became a suspect. This was terrifying. I wrote the story, in part, because humor is the way I best handle fear.

Who or what inspires your work generally?
One of my main sources of inspiration is reading. I've never written fan fiction, but I relate to the impulse. When I read a story or watch a movie, I'm always rewriting them in my head, both trying to understand the imagination behind them, and then internalizing them and thinking about how I would've handled their development. I'm even more inspired by a particular quality of voice and craft choices than by the characters and story. As an editor and workshop participant, I've had to learn to corral this aspect of my brain function that just runs away with other people's stories. I've learned to recognize the impulse and to redirect it when tasked with commenting on new writing. When reading for fun, I often eschew contemporary literature; reading older stuff allows my brain to relax and roam free and rewrite at will.

Who are some of your favorite writers, and what do you like about them?
I grew up reading 20th Century Soviet and underground literature and literature in translation to Russian. Then, in my twenties, living in San Francisco, I completed a degree in Comparative Literature, getting to know a lot more writing from around the world and challenging the tastes that I grew up with. After that, my reading has been mostly in English and in translation to English. In 2019, fellow writer and academic Yelena Furman and I started a blog called Punctured Lines, centered on literatures from the former Soviet Union and aimed to highlight writing by women and to amplify underrepresented voices. So my reading is both broad -- I love reading literature in translation from around the world -- and highly specialized, paying particular attention to the work of my fellow diaspora writers as well as writing in translation to English from the languages of the former Soviet Union. One of my recent favorites is an 1848 novel The Talnikov Family by Avdotya Panaeva, recently translated to English by Fiona Bell and published by Columbia University Press. It's an amazing short novel that has a very contemporary feel to it -- it's very feminist in its subject matter and style -- and the first person narrator, a young woman with artistic ambitions, is deeply relatable. Outside of my niche, my favorite recent novel is Yáng Shuāng-zǐ's Taiwan Travelogue, translated by Lin King. I loved what it had to say of the imperial influence on the daily lives and the lived experiences of its female characters, and I also loved the metafiction of it, the pretense that it was written by a Japanese woman traveling in Taiwan. Both of these books touch on very serious subject matters, but they are written with joy and energy that I find electrifying.

What is your favorite vice? What are you drinking at happy hour, in a literal or a metaphorical sense?
I'm a drinker, and I do enjoy the bounty of Californian wines; but my favorite vice, by far, is reading itself. Reading is such a decidedly unproductive, traitorous activity. In the past, I've struggled to hold down jobs because of the temptation to read at work or coming to work completely underslept because I spent the nights reading. I try to make this a social activity by going to readings and participating in book groups, and I have grown to enjoy these activities. But honestly, sometimes I think that bookish people invented these things to do so that they can legitimize their desire to just spend their lives on the couch, reading.

If you're part of a workshop group or other creative community, tell us about it! How did it form, what all do you do, and how does it help your creative process?
I've been a member of various communities over the years, but one that I am most dedicated to is the San Francisco Writers Workshop. It meets every Tuesday night, and is a mix between a workshop and an open mic. There isn't homework. You bring up to six pages and read them outloud to a group of writers who then critique your work. It's free and drop in group, so we never know who is going to show up on any given night. I started coming to this group circa 2006 when it was led by an Afghani-American writer, Tamim Ansary. He has written memoir, history books, and novels, and he loves a good story, entertainingly told. His feedback was invaluable to my development, as was the organizing principle of the group: it's a good challenge for a writer to have six pages of new writing ready to go every week.