Maxim Osipov (writer)

Osipov was born in Moscow and received his medical training at the Russian National Research Medical University. In the early 1990s, he was a research fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. Upon returning to Moscow, he continued to practice medicine, co-authored a textbook on clinical cardiology, and founded a publishing house, Practica, which specialized in medical, musical, and theological material. After moving to Tarusa, a town 101 kilometers from Moscow, Osipov began working at the local hospital. He also established a charitable foundation to ensure the hospital's survival and to improve its standard of care.[2] He currently lives, writes, and practices medicine in Tarusa.

Osipov made his literary debut in 2007, in the journal Znamya, with a lyrical essay on his experiences in Tarusa.[3] His fiction and non-fiction have been collected in six Russian-language volumes and translated into 18 languages. His debut collection in English, Rock, Paper, Scissors, and Other Stories, translated by Boris Dralyuk, Alex Fleming, and Anne Marie Jackson, appeared in April 2019 from NYRB Classics.[4]

In an interview with Daniel Medin, published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Osipov explained his affinity for shorter forms: "I think that short stories, even long short stories (my personal preference), can be closer to poetry than to novels. It’s not the subject matter that I find central to short fiction, but style and form, which far exceed content in their importance. Being deeply knowledgeable about your material — in my case, about medicine and, to a lesser extent, religion, music, theater, politics, even chess — is not essential, however much it may help."[5] In the same interview, he spoke of the role of music in his life, as well as of its influence on his approach to writing: "I’m not the first to observe that music is the greatest teacher of composition in any art, including writing. There are many similarities between short stories and musical sonatas. Both last between 15 and 40 minutes. They 'make nothing happen,' as Auden said of poetry. When we listen to a sonata for the first time the purpose is to decide whether we want to listen to it again or not. The same should occur when you read a short story." Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich writes of the lingering impact of his stories: "When you delve into Osipov’s texts you see that they are deceptively simple, just like Shalamov’s: Behind this childish ordinariness there lies a hidden chasm. The whole time they leave you thinking how difficult it is to love humanity — wonderful, repulsive, and terrifying as it is — but in order to stay human, that’s exactly what you must do: You must love man. Your soul is restless — it is thinking. To inspire such thoughts — that’s something that only true literature can do."[6]

1. Joshua Yaffa. "A Village Doctor’s Literary Calling." The New Yorker. 6 May 2019.
2. Philip Ó Ceallaigh. Review of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and Other Stories. The Stinging Fly. 4 September 2019.
3. Laura Kolbe. "Rock, Paper, Scissors Review: Wishing and Waiting." The Wall Street Journal. 12 July 2019.
4. Phoebe Taplin. "Rock, Paper, Scissors and Other Stories by Maxim Osipov review – bleakly comic Russian tales." The Guardian. 15 June 2019.
5. Helen Stuhr-Rommereim. "Delicate Mundanity: On Maxim Osipov's Rock, Paper, Scissors: And Other Stories." Los Angeles Review of Books. 21 October 2019.
6. Darren Huang. "A 'Cardiogram of Russian Life': On Rock, Paper, Scissors, and Other Stories by Maxim Osipov." Kenyon Review. 23 March 2020.
7. Kevin T. McEneaney. "Maxim Osipov: New Face of Russian Literature." The Millbrook Independent. 26 September 2019.
8. Jonathan Stone. "Voices of the Post-Soviet Intellectual: Maxim Osipov's Rock, Paper, Scissors." Reading in Translation. 16 December 2019.
9. Jennifer Wilson. "Care in a Land of Closing Hospitals." The New Republic. 20 May 2019.
10. Hilah Kohen. Review of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and Other Stories. Music and Literature. 4 June 2019.
11. Robert Chandler. Review of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and Other Stories. On the Seawall. 4 June 2019.
12. Bradley Babendir. Review of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and Other Stories. Chicago Review of Books. 8 May 2019.
13. Bob Blaisdell. "The Good Doctor: On Maxim Osipov's Rock, Paper, Scissors." Los Angeles Review of Books. 9 April 2019.
14. Robert Allen Papinchak. Review of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and Other Stories. World Literature Today. Spring 2019.
15. Jana Bakunina. "Rock, Paper, Scissors and Other Stories by Maxim Osipov — a surgeon’s precision." Financial Times. 26 April 2019.
16. Howard Amos. "101 kilometres from Moscow, a writer-doctor lays bare the contradictions and intrigue of Russian life." The Calvert Journal. 25 April 2019.
17. Starred Review of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Publishers Weekly. 21 March 2019.
18. "Objects in Mirror" (short story). Translated by Boris Dralyuk. Granta 145: Ghosts. 11 February 2019.
19. "The Mill" (short story). Translated by Alex Fleming. Asymptote. Winter 2018.