Sharon Leiter earned her Ph.D. degree in Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan and has taught Russian literature at the University of Virginia. She is the author of a poetry collection, The Lady and the Bailiff of Time, and a winner of a Virginia Prize for Fiction. Her poems and stories have appeared in major literary quarterlies.

"A scholarly and imaginative study of [Akhmatova's] themes, her friends, and her poetry, in relation to the city that since its foundation by Peter the Great has exercised such a fascination over Russian poets and writers." (New York Review of Books) "An extremely productive new approach, highly recommended for specialists and informed readers." (Library Journal)