Mag­gie Pax­son is a writer, anthro­pol­o­gist, and per­former. She is the author of Solovy­o­vo: The Sto­ry of Mem­o­ry in a Russ­ian Vil­lage, and her essays have appeared in The Wash­ing­ton Post Mag­a­zine, The Wil­son Quar­ter­ly, and Aeon. Flu­ent in Russ­ian and French, she has worked in rur­al com­mu­ni­ties in north­ern Rus­sia, the Cau­ca­sus, and upland France.