Elena Malisova was born in a provincial Soviet town in the late 1980s, where she lived until she moved to Moscow in the late 2000s. Growing up, she wrote poems that were published in small local newspapers. Sylvanova and Malisova met in 2016 and together began working on Pioneer Summer. In 2022, amid a wave of death threats both authors were receiving, Elena left Russia. She currently lives in Germany. Kateryna Sylvanova was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine. After graduating from university, she moved to Russia, where she worked in a shoe store and spent her free time writing. In 2022, after Russia began its full-scale war against Ukraine, Kateryna left Russia and returned to Kharkiv. Anne O. Fisher's most recent translation is Ukraine War, Love: A Donetsk Diary by Ukrainian writer, journalist, and historian Olena Stiazhkina. Fisher and her husband, Derek Mong, are the incoming coeditors of the literary journal At Length. Read more at www.anneofisher.com. She condemns Putin's ongoing war of aggression on Ukraine.

"The #1 bestselling TikTok sensation that sent readers into a frenzy, made international news, and catalyzed one of Russia's largest-ever crackdowns on LGBTQ+ representation is publishing in English for this first time this June. Pioneer Summer follows 16-year-old Yurka, who is sent off to a summer camp and finds himself drawn to an older boy who leads the theater department. The consequences of acting on their attraction to each other would be severe - but that doesn't change how they feel about each other."-- "QUEERTY"

"As the story unfolds, it reinforces the message that there's nothing abnormal about gay desire, evoking the sweetness and innocence of young love as well as its emotional torments in ways that feel powerfully universal. It's a delightful tale of self-determination."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"If you're up for a little romance this summer (and who isn't?), then look for Pioneer Summer: A Novel by Kateryna Sylvanova and Elena Malisova, translated by Anne O. Fisher."-- "The Washington Blade"