(fiction writer, Russia) has received considerable recognition in international literary circles. He received the Russian equivalent of the Booker Prize in 1993, which led to a workshop on creative writing held in Great Britain. New Directions Books published a collection of stories, as well as The Yellow Arrow; his novel Omon Ra is published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. These books have appeared simultaneously abroad, and include another novel, The Life of Insects (forthcoming in Britain, France, the Netherlands), and a short fiction collection is coming out in Japan, The Blue Lantern. His other works are a fiction collection in two volumes, Tambourine to the Upper World and Tambourine to the Lower World. He is taking part in the IWP through the US Information Agency.