Who are the people in the pop-ups on the Russian Language and Literature Program home page?

Liudmila Evgen'evna Ulitskaia (1943-) is an important contemporary Russian writer, many of whose novels have been translated into English and other languages. Originally a biochemist and geneticist, her first novel was published in 1992. She has been awarded numerous prizes for her literary work, including the Booker Prize in 2002, the Medici Prize in 1998, and the Penne Prize in 1997 and 2006. She is a defining voice in Russian writing today.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoi (1828-1910) is one of the most famous Russian novelists from the age of Realism. Tolstoi's best-known works include his novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). A Tolstoian is someone who follows the religious, social, and philosophical thought of Lev Tolstoi, one of the inspirations for the twentieth-century's great non-violence movements. This unique color photograph of Tolstoi was taken by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944).

Elena Abdullovna Khanga (1961-) is a well-known cultural personality in Russia. She is the author (with Susan Jacoby) of Soul to Soul: The Story of a Black Russian American Family: 1865-1992 (1992). She began work as a television journalist in 1993, and was the successful host of two talk shows on NTV: Pro eto and Printsip domino, both of which generated great interest and controversy. She divides her time between Moscow and New York City.