Alexander Genis

Alexander Genis (born February 11, 1953) is a Russian–American writer, broadcaster, and cultural critic. He has written more than a dozen non-fiction books.

Genis, an American citizen, resides in the New York City area. He is the father of Daniel Genis, writer and journalist.

Life and career

Genis was born in Ryazan, Russian SFSR, in 1953. After graduating from the Latvian State University in Riga, he immigrated to the USA in 1977 at the age of 24.

Genis is an anchorman of the weekly radio-show American Hour with Alexander Genis, broadcast in Russian by Radio Liberty since the 1990s. Genis is a columnist and a contributing writer for the main liberal Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, and used to be the host of the TV show Alexander Genis. Letters from America, shown on Russian TV channel "Culture". His new book in 2025 about totalitarian regimes was inspired by Dmitry Muratov and is all about Vladimir Putin without mentioning him - "In this book, of course, there is no word “Ukraine,” no “war with Ukraine,” and no “Putin.” But, on the other hand, the whole book is just about that."