Marina Palei

Marina Anatolyevna Paley (née Spivak, also spelled Palei; in ; born 1 February 1955 in Leningrad) is a Russian-speaking Dutch writer, poet, and scriptwriter.

Life and work Marina Paley was born in Leningrad to twenty-year-old Jewish parents who had met in amateur theater group in Western Ukraine (the mother of Marina was originally from Leningrad) and come to Leningrad in order to study engineering. While they studied Marina was brought up by her maternal grandparents in a small town near Leningrad, Vsevolozhsk. Marina's early childhood, spent in nature, gave the powerful impetus to her lyrical creativity. Marina attended Primary School in Leningrad.

After her parents divorced, in her teenage years, Paley followed the complicated trajectory of her mother's life: she attended schools in the number of regions of the USSR (Kazakhstan, Chuvash Autonomous Republic, the Volga Region, Ukraine) and studied in many schools. The motif of homelessness and insecurity, always going to the existential generalization, also has been reflected in her works.

In 1972, Paley began studying medical profession at the Leningrad Institute of Medicine. After graduating in 1978, she worked in several temporary jobs, among them as a medical technician, cleaning woman, and model, and she participated in an amateur theater group. After suffering a nervous breakdown in 1983, Palei recovered and, starting in 1984, began to write poetry. She also began work as a night watchman, a choice typical for writers and artists of her generation, symbolizing their desire to opt out of officially sanctioned cultural institutions while allowing them state-mandated employment with long stretches of time to write.

Irina Rodnyanskaya, a family friend and editor at the literary journal Novyi mir, encouraged Paley to apply to the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute (in ). She was accepted, one of only five women in her class of eighty, and began writing fiction while taking classes at the institute. She gave up her night watchman job in 1987 to concentrate on writing, and her first publications were primarily literary criticism and reviews. It was during this time that Palei also became involved in the dissident movement, joining the independent Democratic Union (in ) party in 1988.

Paley's first published fiction was a short story, "Composition on Red and Blue" (later renamed "Virage"). The story was printed in "Sobesednik" (the weekly supplement to "Komsomolskaya Pravda") in 1989. However, it was the novella "Evgesha and Annushka" ("Znamya" 1990) that made her famous. In 1991, Paley's novella, "Cabiria of the Obvodny Canal," was published in Novy Mir," bringing her instant critical acclaim and a nomination for the prestigious Russian Booker Prize. Despite harassment from the KGB for her political activities, Palei continued to publish. She graduated cum laude in 1991 and was invited to join the Writers' Union. Although Paley emigrated to the Netherlands in 1995, she has continued to publish in Russia. Her first collection, Birthplace of the Wind , which gathered together her best-known works and previously published story cycles, was published in 1998. This collection was followed by "Long Distance, ili Slavyanskyi Akcent" ("Long Distance or the Slavic Accent") – 2000, Vagrius, "The Lunch" (2000, Inapress), "Klemens" (2007, Vremya), "Tribute to Salamander" (2012, Eksmo). In the years 2011–2013 the publishing-house Eksmo (Moscow) has published 9-volume collected works of her prose and drama.

Paley's prose has been translated into many languages, including English, German, French, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Italian, Dutch, Slovak, Slovene, Estonian, Latvian, Spanish and Japanese .

Paley's many activities also include translations. She translated Italian, Dutch, Greek, English and Slovenian poetry and Flemish prose .

Marina Paley's literary achievements and her contribution to the contemporary literary process are well-known by the international community . Many literary critics and specialists in modern literature esteem her work as a progressive modern development of Russian literature traditions . Paley has been a guest of honor to many European literary festivals . Her writings are included in obligatory reading programs and seminars of several European and American Universities, and her art is a subject of multiple philological studies, essays, and dissertations .

In 1995, due to the categorical rejection of the political regime in Russia, Marina Paley emigrated to the Netherlands, where, over time, she received Dutch citizenship . She considers herself a Dutch writer of Jewish origin, writing in Russian . She is an active oppositionist in relation to the fascist regime of Russia. Since the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2014, she has cut off all ties with Russia and switched entirely to Facebook . She is active on Youtube under the username @m343 .

Membership in organizations Auteursbond — Dutch Union of Writers and Translators (Auteursbond) Netwerk scenarioschrijvers – Dutch Associations of Film and TV professionals Federation of Screenwriters in Europe

Literary awards

Shortlist "The Lunch" novel – Smirnoff-Booker Prize 2000 "The Farm" novella – I.P. Belkin Prize 2005 (Novella of the Year Prize) "Klemens" novel – The Big Book Prize 2006 "Raya & Aad" novella – I.P. Belkin Prize 2009

Winner "Choir" novel – The Russian Award 2011 An essay about Chekhov – Ernest Hemingway Award, «New World» (literary and artistic magazine), Canada, 2025