Elena Ahmatova Poet Country: Belarus

Biography of Elena Akhmatova

Elena Mikhailovna Akhmatova, also known by her pseudonym Zhabinkovskaya, is a Russian poet and editor. She was born on December 8, 1961, in the Sokolovo fish farm in the Zhabinokvsky district of the Brest region in Belarus. Her father, Mikhail Ignatyevich Kovalchuk, worked as a mechanic at a sugar factory, while her mother, Nina Ivanovna Kovalchuk, was an agronomist and taught at a school.

Elena spent her childhood and youth in the city of Zhabinokva in the Brest region. She attended a music school and had a passion for music, painting, and literature. After finishing high school, she made three attempts to enter the Muhina Leningrad Higher Art and Industrial School, but her preparation under a provincial artist turned out to be insufficient. In 1981, Elena passed a creative competition and enrolled in the day department of the Faculty of Journalism at Leningrad State University.

After graduating from university, Elena worked as a correspondent for the mass-circulation newspaper "Na trudovoy vakhte" for a while. She was then offered a position as a literary editor at the magazine "Sudostroyenie." Since then, for over 15 years, she has been involved in literary editing, focusing on artistic literature rather than technical literature. She has worked for publishing houses such as Vasilievsky Ostrov, Izmerenie, Severo-Zapad, Azbuka, Biblia dlya vsekh, Petropol, Kultura, and others.

Elena's first serious publication was in the anthology "Molodoy Leningrad" in 1989 under the pseudonym "Zhabinkovskaya," which she took from the name of her hometown (she considers it immodest to publish under her married name, Akhmatova). She then participated in the 19th conference of young writers from the Northwest. In 1993, a collection of her poems was published in the newspaper "Smena" on February 20, under the section "Poetry "Gamburgsky Schet." In the same year, her first book of poems, "Ulitsa-Sleza," was released, where she made her debut as an artist. Since then, she has been involved in book editing and design for her fellow writers.

Elena has created illustrations for more than twenty books, including poetry and prose for adults and children. In 2000, she was admitted to the Union of Writers of Russia. Elena Mikhailovna Akhmatova (Zhabinkovskaya) is the author of three books of poems: "Ulitsa-Sleza" (St. Petersburg, Publisher "Petropol," 1993), "Serdetchnaya Yudol" (St. Petersburg, Publisher "Duma," 1998), and "Otsvet Lyubvi Nebes" (Burgas, Bulgaria, Publisher "Demarkh," 1999). Her works have been published in various newspapers such as "Smena" and magazines like "Neva," as well as collective publications like "Molodoy Leningrad" and "Molodoy Peterburg."