“Having reached the age of 55, my mother has decided to try out retirement. She won’t stop working—there are no opportunities for advancement in that—but she’s decided to branch out and sign up for an advanced English class after work. Her older sister is taking the same class, and my mother can’t let her sister surpass her at anything. This week, their teacher assigned them a few song lyrics to translate. My mother, determined to be an A-student, messages me for help. . . .”

Continue reading this story on Bulb Culture Collective.

It’s an older piece that was first published in Mad Hatters’ Review 12: Back from the USSR, edited by Alex Cigale and Mariya Gusev. I remain deeply grateful to the editors for taking my piece and for assembling that folio that introduced me to many fellow ex-Soviet authors I have been following ever since.

Bulb Culture Collective is a wonderful venue that gives a second life to the previously published stories and poems from online magazines that do not longer exist. I love seeing this story back online.