Alexei Parshchikov was born in 1954, not far from Vladivostok. He was raised in the Ukraine, and after secondary school entered the Kiev Academy of Agriculture. He spent two years as an agricultural scientist before entering the Moscow Institute of Literature. In 1993, he received an MA from Stanford University. Parshchikov is regarded as the major figure of the Metametaphorism movement. In the last two decades, his works have been translated into fifteen languages. His publications in English include Blue Vitriol, translated by Michael Palmer, Michael Molnar and John High (Avec Books, 1994). He currently resides in Cologne.