Writings by Kseniia Bolshakova Welch @haka.huruksut

Art by Ripley Whiteside @ripleywhiteside

Translation by Ainsley Morse (@morse_ainsley)

Kseniia Bolshakova Welch is a Dolgan language activist and writer. Born and raised in the settlement and tundra of Popigai on the Taimyr Peninsula, she holds deep concerns about the loss of the native language and traditional knowledge, as well as issues of colonization and assimilation. Kseniia crafts her prose in the native Dolgan language, specializing in the genre of flash fiction. Her debut bilingual book, “The Frost Also Melts” encapsulates memories from her nomadic childhood in the tundra and reflections on the destiny of the Dolgans.

Ripley Whiteside‘s drawings, paintings, and prints explore connections between art history, ecology, and climate change. In 2012 he graduated with a MFA from SUNY-Buffalo, and received a BFA from UNC-CH in 2008. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions in the US and Canada, and teaches at Austin Peay State University and Belmont University. He lives and works in Nashville, TN. https://ripleywhiteside.com/

Ainsley Morse is a scholar of 20th and 21st century literature and culture of the post-war Soviet period, particularly unofficial or “underground” poetry, as well as the avant-garde, children’s literature and contemporary poetry. She earned a Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literatures from Harvard University, and she teaches in the Department of Literature at UC San Diego. https://literature.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/amorse.html