anastasia ushakova – анастасия ушакова
I am a bilingual writer, poet, statistician, academic and activist based in the North of England. I was born in Russia and was raised between Moscow and Kharkiv, Ukraine. Since 2010, I have been based in the UK. For a while I could call London my home, then Edinburgh and now, Lancaster.
In Russian, my first hybrid-bilingual collection of essays, poetry and fragmentary prose ‘Cycles of Nature’ is published by shell(f), 2026.
Currently, I am also working on two projects in English: a poetry pamphlet and the long form/essay about politics of naturalisation. After living half of my life outside my home country, I think what I am asking more than anything is what citizenship really means.
My formal background is in economics, social sciences and applied statistics. I finished my PhD at UCL in 2018 (awarded early 2019), followed by a few teaching and research roles until I settled as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at Lancaster University in 2021. I am an established researcher in applied statistics used across social sciences, health and other areas, including mental health. I tend to bring my academic lens into my writing and curious about how both academic and literary can work together to understand the patterns that shape life and society, facilitate engagement with research and change how we think not only about mental health, but about how we transition between countries, worlds, languages and find or lose sense of belonging.
As for creative work and writing, since 2019 I was a student on courses of creative writing at the University of Edinburgh, Russian School of Literary Practice, Lancaster University and Arvon. I also had privilege to study under mentorship of poets and writers such as Oksana Vasyakina, Eoghan Walls, Anthony (Vahni) Capildeo, Clare Shaw, Amy Liptrot, Galina Rymbu and Tiffany Murray.
Recent Literary Publications
Анастасия Ушакова: «В любом случае нам нужно писать о любви» (interview) – Демагог/Demagog, 2026
конфетка прилагается к чаю в саду на даче (selection of poetry) – Демагог/Demagog, 2026
landslide – не(мой) язык (long poem) – Дискурс/Discourse, 2026
Burnout (essay), Ache Magazine, 2026
Погружение, Переводы стихотворений Адриенны Рич (translations), гало, 2025
Петли/Loops (visual poetry), Resistance and Opposition Art Review (ROAR), 2025
Земля-земля, ты все еще нас слышишь?/Earth-earth, can you still hear us? (selection of poetry), Prosodia, 2024
Дом/Home (selection of poetry), Фальтер/Falter, 2024
it is good for you (poetry), Full House Literary, 2024
Стокгольмский синдром/Stockholm syndrome and other poems (selection of poetry), Resistance and Opposition Art Review (ROAR) – English Translation ,2024
