Shcherbina emerged in the early 1980s as the spokesperson for the new, independent Moscow culture. Her work was first published in the official press of the Soviet Union in 1986, and five volumes of her poetry were published in samizdat prior to 1990. Her poetry is now widely published in both established and experimental journals at home and abroad, and has been translated into Dutch, German, French, and English. Shcherbina's poetry blends the personal with the political, and the source for her material is pulled from classical literature, as well as French and German cultural influences.
 
Tatiana Shcherbina was awarded a Bourse de Création from the French Ministry of Culture. After living abroad for several years in the early 1990s, she returned to Moscow, where she has served as editor-in-chief of the cultural journal Estet (Aesthete) since 1995.
Read her blog (in Russian).
 
J. Kates is a poet and literary translator who lives in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire. He is the editor of the Zephyr anthology In the Grip of Strange Thoughts.