photo by Anna Balakhnina
Evgenia Nekrasova is a Russian-language writer and poet. Her work explores themes of corporeality, power, violence, magic and folklore. Born in the Astrakhan region in 1985. Graduated from the Moscow School of New Cinema (2015). She has authored five collections of short stories and two novels. Nekrasova is a winner of NOS/Wanderer and the Lyceum Prize for Young Russian Authors, she is finalist of major Russian literature awards: Big Book, NOS, the National Bestseller (she hasn't applied for any awards since February 2022).
She is a co-founder of the School of literary practices, where she teaches. School of literary practices is an independent, the most avangard and successful Russian-language creative writing programme, which has already shaped the “literature of Russian millennials”.
Nekrasova writes about women in today's Russia, often referring in her works to folklore and magical thinking. According to some critics, Nekrasova is the founder of "magical pessimism" in contemporary Russian literature. She is a producer of several young authors' literature anthologies. Her prose has been adopted to stage in the main experimental theaters in Moscow and other cities. Her works were translated into English, Czech, Latvian and Italian languages.
Nekrasova is a feminist. She is a great admirer of contemporary women’s art. She has invited some Russian female artists to work on her book covers.
Nekrasova is a feminist. She is a great admirer of contemporary women’s art. She has invited some Russian female artists to work on her book covers.
To read Nekrasova’s works in English:
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short story -
the poem -
short story -
short story
Katya and Kikimora
original title: Калечина-Малечина
A debut novel on abuse, bullying, and a childhood spent on the outskirts of a sprawling metropolis, by one of the pioneers of the new Russian writing, Evgenia Nekrasova.
Katya is a lonely child. Bullied at school and unloved at home, she seeks solace in an imaginary world only she can access. When a conflict with a school teacher erupts, and transfer to a special needs facility seems inevitable, Katya, pushed to the edge, decides to take her own life. She is rescued by a magical creature that emerges from behind the cooking stove. At once maternal, bestial and infantile, the creature become Katya’s ally and in its company, Katya discovers her own strength and finally finds an escape from her dreary life.
One of the pioneers of the new Russian writing, Nekrasova works with Slavic mythology placing it in the context of mundane contemporary Russian reality. With a seemingly innocent and playful style, she creates with Katya and Kikimora a novel that may appear to tell a simple childhood story, when in reality narrating the abandonment, violence and lack of love that mark contemporary Russian society.
Katya is a lonely child. Bullied at school and unloved at home, she seeks solace in an imaginary world only she can access. When a conflict with a school teacher erupts, and transfer to a special needs facility seems inevitable, Katya, pushed to the edge, decides to take her own life. She is rescued by a magical creature that emerges from behind the cooking stove. At once maternal, bestial and infantile, the creature become Katya’s ally and in its company, Katya discovers her own strength and finally finds an escape from her dreary life.
One of the pioneers of the new Russian writing, Nekrasova works with Slavic mythology placing it in the context of mundane contemporary Russian reality. With a seemingly innocent and playful style, she creates with Katya and Kikimora a novel that may appear to tell a simple childhood story, when in reality narrating the abandonment, violence and lack of love that mark contemporary Russian society.
Nekrasova’s main characters’ – note that they’re all female – blend inner strength and outer, even supernatural, forces that combine to lend them abilities that empower.
— Lisa C. Hayden, literary translator
The list of works:
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"Unhappy Moscow”, the prose cycle (2017) - "Katya and Kikimora", the novel (2018)
- "Sistermom", the collection of short stories (2019)
- "House love", the collection of short stories and poems (2021)
- “She-bear”, the collection of short stories and poems (2023)
- “Kholodov street”, the novel (2025)
- “The Baba-yaga’s lawyer”, the collection of short stories (2025)
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