Marina Sonkina is a scholar, a former CBC producer, and the author of several collections of short stories, among them, Expulsion and Other Stories. Having come to Canada as a refugee with two young sons she did not hesitate to help Ukrainians fleeing the war. Her experience at the Ukrainian-Polish border is reflected in her latest collection, Ukrainian Portraits: Diaries from the Border (Guernica, 2023). Her most recent book, One Thousand and A Night as Told by Larissa, Construction Shock-Worker, is forthcoming with Guernica in 2025. She lives in Vancouver.