Maria Kuznetsova (novelist)

Kuznetsova was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, and moved to the U.S. at five years old with her family.[3] After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, her family became Jewish refugees in Alabama.[3] Upon moving, she learned English, and eventually attended Duke University as an English major.[4] She went on to receive master's degrees in creative writing from University of California, Davis and the Iowa Writers' Workshop.[5] She serves as an assistant professor in the English department at Auburn University.[5]

Kuznetsova's debut novel Oksana, Behave! was published in 2019 by Random House.[1] A bildungsroman about a young Ukrainian immigrant woman divided into "episodes" for chapters, the book was reviewed positively by Emma Straub in the Wall Street Journal,[6] Anya Ulinich in the New York Times,[7] O, The Oprah Magazine,[8] Kirkus Reviews,[9] and Publishers Weekly.[10] Kuznetsova wrote in an essay for Catapult that many readers assumed that the book was autobiographical.[11] The book's launch also led to author interviews with a variety of publications including Electric Literature,[12] Bookforum,[13] The Gazette,[14] and the Chicago Review of Books.[15] Kuznetsova stated that the Soviet dissident Sergei Dovlatov was an influence on the work.[13]

Following the success of her first novel, Kuznetsova published her second, Something Unbelievable, less than two years later, in April 2021.[16] The book centers a grandmother in Ukraine and a granddaughter in the U.S. discussing their Jewish family's history through and after the Holocaust.[2] Rachel Khong wrote that the book argues that "the everyday matters—how unspectacular moments can transcend their confines, how miraculous the ordinary can be" in the New York Times.[17] In an interview with Sanjena Santhian for The Millions, she said the novel began as a short story that she wrote for a class with Ethan Canin at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.[18] This story's grandmother character was based on her grandmother in life, which she wrote about in an essay for Guernica.[19] In an interview for Bookforum, she said that the second novel was different because it required more historical research than the first.[20] It also received positive reviews from the Moscow Times,[21] Bustle,[22] Ploughshares,[23] and the A.V. Club.[24] However, it received a slew of negative reviews, including from Publishers Weekly, which wrote that the book "tediously unfolds" and "there’s not enough to hold readers' interest."[25]

Kuznetsova has also published books reviews and other nonfiction, including essays in Slate about her experience having a miscarriage[26] and postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter.[27]