Ludmila Petrushevskaya, born in 1938, a Muscovite, was originally known as a dramatist. Her sombre and unusual plays were highly popular among dissident-minded intellectuals in the 1970s and 80s. In 1992 her novel The Time Night was short-listed for the Russian Booker Prize and later translated into many languages. "One of the finest living Russian writers... Her signature black humor and matter-of-fact prose result in an insightful and sympathetic portrait of a family in crisis." Publishers Weekly
Maria Arbatova, born in 1957, is a dramatist, novellist, essayist and a leading activist in the feminist movement in Russia. My Teachers is an excerpt from her autobiographical novel summing up the first forty years of the Arbatova's life from her hippy childhood to the presidential advisor on women's issues.