☾ alina pleskova
Hi there, I'm Alina Pleskova. I'm a Moscow-born, Philadelphia-based poet & editor.
My first full-length poetry collection, Toska, was published by Deep Vellum in June 2023 & was a finalist for a 2024 Lambda Literary Award.
I'm a recipient of the Leeway Foundation's 2020 Art & Change & 2022 Window of Opportunity grants. I was a writer-in-residence at The Carolyn Moore Writers House in Tigard, OR in May 2026 and The Betsy Hotel in Miami, FL in August 2023. My chapbook, What Urge Will Save Us, was published by Spooky Girlfriend Press in 2017.
I've hosted workshops, events, & panels for organizations including Blue Stoop, The Head & The Hand, Rutgers University, & the Institute of Contemporary Art, & served as Programming Coordinator for the 215 Festival. I host the monthly, music-themed Track Changes reading/listening/conversation series at Solar Myth.
I'm a founder of the Cheburashka Collective, a group of women & nonbinary writers who are emigres/first-gen/refugees from the Soviet diaspora. I co-edit bedfellows, a literary magazine & small press topically focused on writing about desire & intimacy. My day job is in nonprofit communications.