About the book: 2014 / Vladimir Mikhailovich Shpakov - prose writer, essayist, critic, regular contributor to DN. Lives in St. Petersburg. The latest major publication in our magazine is the novel “Mixed Brak”, “DN”. No. 10–11, 2011. Vladimir Mikhailovich Shpakov - prose writer, critic, playwright. Born in 1960, in the city of Bryansk. Since 1977, he has been a resident of St. Petersburg, where he graduated from the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute, after which he worked in a defense research institute, in the civil and military fleet, in a small-circulation press, etc. He continued his education at the Literary Institute. A. M. Gorky (seminar by A. I. Pristavkin), who graduated in 1995. The first publication of prose took place in 1992, in the magazine Ogonyok. Since then, the author has published many stories, novels, plays, as well as about three hundred critical articles and reviews. The author is most valued by employees of the magazines “Friendship of Peoples”, “October”, “Khreshchatyk”, “Znamya”, “Ural”, "Zinziver". In the past, there were good relations with the Neva magazine, where the author, by the way, worked for almost five years as head of the prose department (2003–2007), but now this relationship has ended. The author has published four books of prose: “A Clown on a Bicycle” (St. Petersburg, “Helikon-Plus”, 1998), “The Year of the Rooster” (St. Petersburg, “Aletheia”, 2006), “Games on the Field of Waterloo” (St. Petersburg, “Helikon-Plus”, plus", 2010), "Happy Felix" (Moscow, "Astrel", 2010). Stories, novellas and novels published in periodicals over the years were nominated for the Ivan Belkin, Yuri Kazakov, National Bestseller, and Russian Booker awards. Member of the Writers' Union of St. Petersburg since 1996. Member of the Union of Writers of the 21st Century. Winner of the N.V. Gogol Literary Prize for 2010. Currently, he is the first deputy editor-in-chief of the Zinziver magazine. Lives in St. Petersburg.