Galina Itskovich

What was your favorite book as a child?

When I was six, a neighbor gave me a beautiful edition of Alice in Wonderland, and I just fell in love with reading, and am still in love with it — and with Alice.

What was the original reason or motivation why you started writing creatively?

My primary motivation was to share my life experiences with my friends. When I didn’t have a friend to share my writing with, I’d imagine such a person. I wrote my first poems at ten, but this shouldn’t count. As a returning writer at the age of 30, I started to write prose and to write in English because I made new, absolutely real friends. Somehow, I always have a story or two to share with the world. It’s not even what actually happened, but how I process it and the meaning behind the situation.

What was the most adventurous or thrilling thing you ever did/experienced?

I’ve done a lot of travelling so there are many amazing places on my list. The most adventurous one, probably, was my 2011 trip through Jammu and Kashmir. One night, when all prior arrangements fell through, I had to carpool to get through the mountain pass. The jeep was driving in total darkness and finally stopped in Kargil around midnight. The next morning, when I saw the road with the abyss on the right and another abyss on the left, I realized that we were lucky to survive it. The driver didn’t speak a word of English and words wouldn’t express the depth of my appreciation anyway. Then, I saw graffiti on the cliff high above the road. It said, “Nothing’s impossible,” and it all just made sense.

Do you listen to music while reading or writing?

I can’t listen and write at the same time. Writing requires silence so I can hear the voices of my characters. It’s also important to read aloud what I just wrote from time to time, and to listen to my own voice  as if it was someone else’s work.