Tania Skarynkina

is a poet and essayist born in 1969 in Smarhon, Belarus. She has worked as a children’s book illustrator, postwoman and journalist. She is the author of two poetry collections and a collection of essays entitled “A Large Czesław Miłosz With A Dash of Elvis Presley”. For this book, which mixes recollections of childhood and life in a small Belarusian town with thoughts on world literature and pop culture, Skarynkina won an English PEN Award and was shortlisted for the Jerzy Giedroyc Literary Prize.