The Magic Ring

About the Author

Boris Shergin was a writer, folklorist and artist, active from the 1920s to his death in 1973. He was born to a family of fishermen and boatbuilders in Arkhangelsk in 1893, and brought up in the local Pomor cultural tradition. He started recording northern folktales and songs when still a teenager. He published his first book in 1924, of northern tales and ballads, and several more publications followed. Following the 'Leningrad affair' in 1947, when the writers Akhmatova and Zoshchenko were officially discredited, Shergin was also condemned for 'violating the Russian language' and was not published for over a decade.

Sian Valvis was the recipient of the National Centre for Writing literary translator mentorship (2020), during which her work appeared in Teffi's Other Worlds (NYRB, ed. Robert Chandler). Her rhyming translation of Kolobok (Fontanka, 2021) won a PEN Translates award-the first translation from Russian for younger readers to win the award. She was shortlisted for the John Dryden Prize (2023), and Highly Commended for the AAWP Translation Prize (2023). She leads translation workshops in schools, using Kolobok as a prompt for children to write their own stories. The Slavic folktale The Magic Ring is her second picture book.

Dovilė Valvis is a Lithuanian multidisciplinary designer, architect, and illustrator based in London. She has worked across editorial, cultural, educational, and children's illustration projects. Her illustration for Kolobok was longlisted for the Klaus Flugge Prize. Her work explores the rituals of the everyday, drawing inspiration from the imaginary worlds of folklore and myth.