​Svetlana grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the former USSR, and later immigrated to the United States. Her poetry and short fiction recently appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, The Florida Review, B O D Y, Blackbird, Wigleaf, The Cortland Review, and elsewhere. She is a three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and a recipient of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference scholarship in poetry.

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She attained ABD in Philosophy from UC Riverside, where she specialized in action theory and moral psychology, and  wrote a dissertation on the concept of psychological innocence and the agency of moral saints.

 

She lives in the Bay Area with her partner and works at the Stanford Humanities Center.

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[Please note that some of her writing previously appeared under her former name "Svetlana Beggs."]