Katya Apekina is a nov­el­ist, screen­writer, and trans­la­tor. Her debut nov­el, The Deep­er the Water, the Ugli­er the Fish, was named a Best Book of 2018 by Kirkus, Buz­zfeed, Lithub, and oth­ers, was a final­ist for The LA Times Book Prize, and has been trans­lat­ed into Span­ish, Cata­lan, French, Ger­man, and Ital­ian. She is the recip­i­ent of an Eliz­a­beth George grant, an Olin Fel­low­ship, the Ale­na Wil­son prize, and a Third Year Fic­tion Fel­low­ship from Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty in St. Louis, where she did her MFA. She has done res­i­dences at VCCA, Playa, Ucross, Art Omi: Writ­ing, and Fon­da­tion Jan Michal­s­ki in Switzer­land. Born in Moscow, she moved to the US when she was three years old and cur­rent­ly lives in Los Ange­les, Cal­i­for­nia. Moth­er Doll is her sec­ond novel.