Maria Chursina (1969 – 2000). Maria was born in Moscow. At the age of 12, she emigrated with her mother to the USA, where she attended school and graduated from New York University, with honors.  In 1991, she returned to Moscow, completed a two-year psychotherapy course and began working with patients. In early 2000, at the age of 30, she died. “By Way of Writing,” a book  of her poems, written in English at the age of 16-17, was published posthumously in 2001, with Russian translations by Isabella Mizrahi. From a book review by Valery Chereshnya: “…. a reader will encounter an unusually naked, pain-inspired text that captures all shades of love – love of humanity and writing as a release from the painful and the most accurate capture of it. The most striking thing is that such emotional intensity somehow miraculously coexists with insightful reflection and subtle self-analysis.”