Masha Kisel holds a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Northwestern University. Her writing has been published in The Forward, Gulf Coast, Vestal Review, Prime Number and others. She currently lives in Dayton, OH where she teaches at the University of Dayton. Masha is working on her first novel and a collection of short stories.
Essays
“When I Didn’t Belong to Me,” Transformations (September 2022)
“The Escape Artist,” Tahoma Literary Review (Spring 2022)
“Checkmate,” Columbia Journal (March 2021)
“A Bisel Kisel” monthly column in The Dayton Jewish Observer (April 2019-July 2020; Honorable mention from 39th Annual Simon Rockower Awards, American Jewish Press Association, 2020; Second Place Best Column SJP:Ohio’s Best Journalism, 2020)
“A Tale of Two Summer Camps,” The Forward (June 2019)
“As a Russian Jewish Immigrant I was a Stranger at the Passover Seder,” The Forward (April 2019)
Short Stories
“Simulations,” Mythaxis (June 2023)
“Innisfree,” The Brooklyn Review (April 2023)
“The Dream Walkers,” McNeese Review (February 2023)
“Marble Staircase, Rotten Cellar,” Prime Number (January 2022)
“Lady Centaur,” East by Northeast (March 2021; shortlisted for Masters Review Winter 2019-2020 Short Story Award)
“Fallout,” Gulf Coast (Summer/Fall 2021)
Flash Fiction
“One-Night Stand,” Vestal Review (June 2021)
“Sex Doll Rebellion,” Lunchbreak Zine (September 2021)
“Mythical Creatures,” Sledgehammer Lit (October 2021)
“Unsolved Childhood Riddle,” Versification Zine (October 2021)
“Beating Boris,” Short Vigorous Roots: A Contemporary Flash Fiction Collection of First Generation Migrant Voices (February 2022 from Ooligan Press, 2022 INDIES winner)
“The Playground Dads’ Coven,” And If That Mocking Bird Don’t Sing: Parenting Stories Gone Speculative (March 2022 from Alternating Current Press)
“Fatherling, Father-thing, Flutter Feathers,” Variant Lit (Winter 2022; Nominated for Best Microfiction Anthology 2023)
Reviews
Mikhail Zoshchenko: Sentimental Tales translated by Boris Dralyuk, Translation and Literature (Summer 2020)
Academic Articles
“Literacy and Literary Mastery in Early Soviet Literature: The Case of Yuri Olesha’s Envy,” Ulbandus (2008)
“Feuilletons Don’t Burn: Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita and the Imagined ‘Soviet Reader’,” Slavic Review (2009)
Awards
“A Bisel Kisel” monthly column in The Dayton Jewish Observer, Honorable mention from 39th Annual Simon Rockower Awards, AJPA 2020 for “A Taste of Brokenness at Our First Passover Seder,” “The Descendant of a Rabbi a Priest and a Cossack” and “Who By Fire?” (2020)
“A Bisel Kisel” monthly column in The Dayton Jewish Observer, Second Place best column, small circulation, SPJ: Ohio’s Best Journalism Awards (2020)
“Lady Centaur,” short-listed for Masters Review Winter 2019-2020 Short Story Competition
Email me at kisel.masha@gmail.com
Masha Kisel 