Ludmila Ulitskaya (b. 1943) is one of Russia’s leading prose writers and her works have been translated into over twenty foreign languages. Born in Bashkorkostan (formerly Bashkiria, within the Russian Federation), she grew up in a communal apartment in Moscow. She earned a biology degree at Moscow State University and worked for many years as a geneticist, turning to literature only in her forties, when she also joined the Moscow Jewish Theater staff as dramaturg. She achieved fame in the Russian literary world in 1992 with the publication of her novella Sonechka in the nation’s foremost literary journal, Novyi mir (New World). She received the 2001 Man Booker Prize for her novel Kazus Kukotskogo (The Kukotsky Case), and numerous other international awards, including Best Writer of the Year Ivanushka Prize (2004, Russia), the Simone de Beauvoir Prize (2011, France), and the Pak Kyong Ni Prize (2012, South Korea). Ulitskaya divides her time between Moscow and Israel.