Masha Karp

Masha Karp is a political journalist and a scholar on the work of George Orwell. She is the author of two books about Orwell: his biography, in Russian (2017) and "George Orwell and Russia", in English (2023). She is also a translator of English and German literature into Russian, a literary critic and a former BBC editor.

Life

Masha Karp was born in Leningrad, USSR (now St Petersburg, Russia). Her father Poel Karp () is a poet, literary translator, ballet critic and political writer. Masha was educated as a linguist in the Herzen University in Leningrad. She began publishing her translations of English and German poetry and prose into Russian in 1983. Her published translations include works of Virginia Woolf, Alice Munro, Dylan Thomas, W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Jennings, Andreas Gryphius and Nikolaus Lenau. She also translated George Orwell’s fable "Animal Farm" and its original preface "The Freedom of the Press".

In 1991 she moved to London to work first as a producer (1991-1997) and then as Russian Features editor (1997-2009) for the BBC World Service, making and commissioning programmes on cultural, political and social issues. She also took part in BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service radio output in English and in the live BBC World Television show Europe Direct.

Since 2009 she has been a freelance journalist with a special interest in relations between Russia and the West. This was the main subject of her articles published in the national press (Standpoint, The Independent, The Spectator, Open Democracy, etc.) and on the website of the UK NGO Rights in Russia, of which she has been a trustee since its foundation in 2010.

George Orwell’s life and work and its relevance to Russia has always remained in the centre of Masha’s attention. Her biography of Orwell, the first scholarly biography of the writer to be published in Russia, was a finalist of the ABS Literary Prize. She is a member of the board of The Orwell Society and the editor of the OS Journal.

In 2023 Karp published "George Orwell and Russia", which received wide critical acclaim.

It was positively reviewed inter alia by The Times Literary Supplement, Forbes, and The Boston Globe.
The book attracted attention of veteran diplomat Rodric Braithwaite, who served for a short time as British Ambassador in Moscow during the fall of the USSR, he found the author's analysis unconvincing. On the other hand, another diplomat, the permanent representative of Canada in the UN Bob Rae called the book "brilliant".

Masha Karp is the Chair of the Pushkin Club and a trustee of "Rights in Russia"
in Britain, while in Russia she is a member of St. Petersburg Writers' Union and the Literary Translators' Guild.

Masha Karp was awarded a prize of ''Innostrannaya literatura'' magazine (1991) for her translation of Virginia Woolf and also Popov Prize (2001) for her radio feature "In Defence of Freedom".

Books

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Videos

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karp, Masha
1956 births
Living people
Russian writers
Russian translators
Russian journalists
Russian women writers
Russian women journalists
Herzen University alumni