Russian · b. 1972
Maria Stepanova is a Russian poet who wrote one of the great hybrid works of recent years. "In Memory of Memory" (2017) combines family history, photographs, essays on archives and objects, and reflections on Jewish life in the Soviet Union. The book resists memoir's usual narrative arc; Stepanova wants to understand how we inherit the past without possessing it. She edited one of Russia's leading independent cultural websites until leaving after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.