San Francisco
First Language(s): Russian
Second Language(s):
English
Olga Zilberbourg’s English-language debut LIKE WATER AND OTHER STORIES (WTAW Press) explores bicultural identity, bisexuality, and immigrant parenthood. Born in Leningrad, USSR, in a Russian-speaking Jewish family, she lives in California where she co-facilitates the San Francisco Writers Workshop and co-runs Punctured Lines, a feminist blog about literatures from the former USSR. She is at work on her first novel.
What was your favorite book as a child?
Vasek Trubachev by Valentina Oseeva.
Do you remember the original reason or motivation why you started writing creatively?
Exploring my identity? Alternative lives? Trying to imagine what the future might be like? To entertain my friends? I started writing at about nine, and I can't quite remember what the initial motivation was, but I still have the notebooks with the stories, and they are rad.
What was the most adventurous or thrilling thing you ever did/experienced?
Besides coming to the US for college at the age of seventeen, it was probably a pair of kayaking trips I went on with my friends on Lake Ladoga in the early 2000s. Those Soviet canvas kayaks weren't really meant for any sort of weather, and the waves on the lake were testing our ability to scoop the water out. Once the fog rose up, we could hardly see where we were heading.
Do you listen to music while reading or writing?
Sometimes, especially when I'm writing about music.
Essay
Radio Baltica
Issue Spring '25
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