Tania Skarynkina, poet and essayist, was born in 1969 in Smarhon, Belarus. During her life, she worked as a postwoman, journalist and illustrator. She writes poetry in Russian and essays in Belarusian. A Large Czeslaw Milosz with a Dash of Elvis Presley was originally published in 2015 and includes recollections of her childhood in Smarhon interwoven with thoughts on poets, philosophers and world literature as a whole.

• Note on languageIntroduction by Maryja MartysievičSmarhoń the MagicalHugsDeath and the Panama HatThe Real BrodskyMy God!Angels on the FrontierThe Silver Screen, an Old Church and a Cinema called `Cosmos’On First Name Terms with Borges, Tolstoy and NabokovPost MortemMaryja and JapanWinter CampThree Generations of Domestic PorcelainFigure Skates and Dead ClassmatesA Window on Another LifeTalking about The Brothers KaramazovWhen Writers appear in DreamsRabbit Meat, Gypsies and the OceanFour Sisters and the Cornflower Blue DressA Large Dose of Czesław Miłosz with a Dash of Elvis PresleyThe Restaurant that gave us a Foretaste of AmericaTwo Film StarsPork Knuckle and Stuffed CamelOnegin and the SurgeonTime to have Your Hair DoneDo you remember the Hypnotist?A Farewell to PugachovaThe Face is not RightGreetings that waft from my Childhood DaysNotes on the Text

‘She writes as if penning a letter to a close friend, loosely, intimately, but never less engagingly…’