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, & was a writer-in-residence at 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 Apiary, Blue Stoop, The Head & The Hand, Rutgers University, & the Institute of Contemporary Art, & served as Programming Coordinator for the 215 Festival. In 2023-24, I hosted the monthly Liner Notes reading/listening/conversation series at a record bar in Philly.

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.