Ksenia Buksha (1983) was a St. Petersburg-based poet and writer until she left Russia with her four children in March 2022. Buksha is the author of 15 books of poetry and fiction, including the National Bestseller Prize-winning novel The Freedom Factory, translated into English by Anne O. Fisher (Deep Vellum/Phoneme Media, 2018). Buksha was the youngest woman ever to win. To date, she is the youngest writer ever to have been shortlisted for Russia’s Big Book Award, and one of only two writers – and the only woman – ever to be shortlisted for the Big Book twice before the age of 40. 

Buksha is also an artist whose work often appears in the pages and on the covers of her own books. Other literary awards include Città di Penne-Mosca Prize 2014 (Italy), the Big Book award shortlist (2014 for The Freedom Factory and 2020 for Churov and Churbanov), and the NOS shortlist in 2019 for Opens Inward. Ksenia Buksha’s literary fiction, excluding There’s Nobody Up There, is handled by Elkost Literary Agency.

Arthur Bondar (1983) is a photographer, publisher and collector. Bondar has been collecting WWII war negatives and prints for many years, and he possesses over 1500 unique war photographs, including the Valery Faminsky archive. Bondar studied documentary photography and human rights at New York University Tisch School of the Arts (New York, USA). Bondar was honored with National Geographic 2011 and Magnum Foundation Human Rights 2012 grants. Bondar was noted with a Photographer of the Year in Ukraine title (2012), and he is also a laureate of the Foundation of Documentary Photography in the USA (2013) and Allard Prize, Canada (2013).

Arthur Bondar has published seven books, including Signatures of War, Valery Faminsky V. 1945, and Barricade: The Euromaidan Revolt. His projects have been widely exhibited as installations, exhibitions and screenings in museums and art institutions worldwide. Arthur cooperates with many international magazines, newspapers and online media. His works have been published in The Time, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian (including his photograph of President Zelenskyy on the front page), Le Monde, the Times of London, the Wall Street Journal, De Volkskrant, etc. The author’s website: https://arthurbondar.com.