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Larisa began writing at three, although it was pure
nonsense. She got her B.A. in English from Cleveland
State University and won a scholarship to the Imagination
Writer's Workshop, to which she attributes her absolute
dislike for Diane Wakoski, but gained great admiration
for Sheila Schwartz. As a student at CSU, Larisa purposely
got an F in her Existentialism class in protest of
being tested on angst or actually having to attend
class when experiencing angst. Sartre would agree,
but the professor did not.
Larisa formed a life long friendship with Alberta
Turner, who taught at Oberlin College as well as CSU,
and who is truly a "great soul." Larisa
has also developed a life-long reading love affair
with Nabokov, Marquez, Allende, Gogol, Akhmatova,
and Tennesse Willimas, to name a few.
By sheer accident and with no chess involved whatsoever,
Larisa was the poetry editor of The Cleveland Review
(no longer alive and kicking). She has published several
of her own poems to a small, but well received response.
Larisa also worked for several Russian poets doing
translation work and research such as Zoya Falkov.
Larisa moved to New York in order to sell out and
work on Wall Street, for Nasdaq... Larisa fully regrets
this and daily kicks herself for such a grievous error
of judgment. She did not stop writing, she simply
needed to pay bills and somehow ended up not paying
the bills and not publishing or even attending to
her creativity fully for several years. Such is New
York.
In 2001, Larisa lived roughly a block from ground
zero and lost neighbors, friends, her job, and her
ability to write anything whatsoever. She moved to
Florida to live with her parents and begin her active
denial of that tragic event, which she managed to
keep up for two years, and from which she has finally
awakened.
John had the honor of meeting Larisa when she emailed
him to blast him about a story, from which their love/hate
friendship began and continues to grow. While Larisa
has been currently following the election issues,
her general writing for Raw Story is focused on social
issues and satire.
Larisa is currently working on a book of poetry entitled
Oddesitka/Amreikanka to be published in late 2005.
Larisa is also working on a yet unnamed novel about
Russian refugees living in Italy (it's been over five
years and she has yet to complete it, hurry up already!).
Larisa does not use her actual surname, instead using
her patronymic as a pen name in honor of her father.
She speaks Russian fluently, plays chess like a true
Rusky, is obsessed with anagrams and ciphers, and
is active (loud) in civil and human rights issues.
Larisa is also a staunch advocate for patients' rights,
something she knows a great deal about herself having
a chronic illness. Larisa has Mixed Connective Tissues
Disease (MCTD) which is a form of Lupus and/or Scleroderma
(which only took about eight years to diagnose thanks
to HMOs). So cut her some slack when her meds make
her a bit batty.
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