Katherine 'Nikanavaja' Malinina

Ever since I can remember I've been feeling that life is an enormous interactive museum of various opportunities and skills and to stick forever near just one of the plethora of exhibits is deadly boring. Therefore after graduating from a liberal arts college in Moscow and studing poetry at the M. Gorky Literature Institute I started working alternately as a writer, editor and designer.

My professions walk hand in hand: the list of books that I wrote includes several biographies of painters. I also illustrate my own poems and design covers for books written by my colleagues.

A few years ago I was editing a splendid article by one of the authors of our magazine. It was about steampunk. I googled the term - and was truly impressed with what I found. All those colorful pictures of the talented cosplayers and their whimsical characters, elaborated steam mechanisms, entourage interiors and jewelry - they were spectacular! I dug a little deeper discovering steampunk music, movies, books, video-games, etc. It's a huge inspiration! That is how my steampunk (or steampunk-esque) cycle of poems and pictures has begun.