Pyotr Ilyinsky
Author Profiles

About the Author:

Ilyinsky-author-photo
Pyotr Ilyinsky
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Ilyinsky Pyotr Olegovich was born in St. Petersburg (Leningrad).  Since childhood, he was torn between natural sciences and liberal arts. He graduated from Moscow State University, then received a PhD in biology. He completed his post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School, and in 2008-2016 he taught at Boston University. His first non-scientific publication came in 1989 in the magazine “XX century and the World”, a harbinger of Russian political reforms. He published several books in Russian: “A change in Colors” (2001), “Carving the Stone” (2002), “A Long Instance of Birth. Meditating on the History of the Ancient Rus” (2004, 2nd ed. 2017), “A Legend of Babylon” (2007), “At the Very Edge of the Forest” (2019). His novel ‘The Era of Enlightenment’ is about to be published in Moscow. Many essays, short stories and verses have been published in various Russian literary journals around the globe.  He is a member of St. Petersburg Writers Union.

Bookshelf
100 pms war
by Julia Nemirovskaya, editor

This excellent anthology, compiled and edited by Julia Nemirovskaya, showcases poems by Russian (and Russian-speaking) poets who express their absolute rejection of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

DesyatyjKrug
by David Gay

The documentary novel “The Tenth Circle” tells the story of the life, struggle, and destruction of the Minsk ghetto, one of the largest in the Soviet Union and Europe during World War II. (Russian edition)

1. Dislocation
by Julia Nemirovskaya and Anna Krushelnitskaya, editors

This collection focuses on the war between Russia and Ukraine as seen by Russophone poets from all over the world.

Videos
Play Video
EastWest Literary Forum Bilingual Poetry & Prose Reading. July 13, 2025.
Length: 2 hrs. 08 min