Regina Derieva
Regina Derieva is an acclaimed Russian poet and writer who has been described as a possible future Nobel Prize winner.
She was born in Odessa, Ukraine, in 1949. From 1965 until 1991 she lived and worked in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. She graduated from university with majors in music and Russian philology and literature. A poet since the age of 15, she published books which were heavily censured by the then Soviet authorities, but nonetheless (at the request of other writers) became a member of the Union of Soviet Writers. In 1990 she was baptised into the Roman Catholic Church, and following further censure and oppression from the authorities, she emigrated to Israel with her family.
Life was no easier in Israel for a declared Christian, and Regina and her family, deprived of Israeli citizenship, became virtual prisoners without official papers, unable to live an independent life or to leave the country. The family were cared for by religious institutions, whilst Regina's husband Alexander set about making the series of recordings on which the Pilgrim's Star label is based.
Regina has now published several books, several of which have benn translated into English and other languages. They include The Visitation; Prayer of the Day; Three Possibilities to see the Kingdom of God; Absence; Winter Lectures for Terrorists; The Meaning of Mystery; De Profundis; The Pilgrim's Star; In Commemoration of Monuments; and Inland Sea and Other Poems. The last three are available from Divine Art
