Polina Barskova, born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in 1976, is one of the most celebrated contemporary Russian writers. She studied Classical Philology in Saint Petersburg, Slavic Studies in Berkeley and teaches at Hampshire College in Amherst. In addition to her extensive poetic oeuvre – eight volumes since 1991 – she is a literary scholar and editor dedicated to the poets of the Leningrad blockade. Living Pictures is her first volume of prose and was awarded the prestigious Andrei Bely Prize.