Is this a dagger which I see before me?
Such virtue hath my blog.
I’m a journalist & playwright in Moscow. So far in my life I’ve been called: an anti-American, an ugly American, a Ukrainian nationalist, a Russian nationalist, a Russophobe, a feminazi, an anti-feminist, a radical leftist, a right-winger, a schoolmarm, and, most memorably, a whore. I present all of this as collective evidence that bitches be crazy.
Visit The Moscow News, where I’m deputy editor, to take a look at my work. Visit Global Comment – an internationalist online magazine & Arab Comment – an Arab online magazine (on hiatus) to take a look at some of my previous work – I used to be editor of both GC and AC.
I write a weekly science and tech blog for RIA Novosti English – it has a cutesy name I am ridiculously fond of, “Matrix Mama.” Also for RIA Novosti English, I write a weekly column on trends in Russian society – this one is aptly called “Trendswatcher.” You can read it, alongside other columns for RIA’s English service, here.
Elsewhere, my writing has appeared in Common Ties, Mideast Youth, Muslim WakeUp!, Plural Politics, The Second Pass, Forth, NOX, JO, U MEN, The Guardian, Russia Profile, RIA Novosti, Foreign Policy, Strange Horizons and probably a few other places I have currently forgotten. The good people of Feministe have occasionally allowed me to deface their blog as well. I write plays in Russian and fiction in English. Before you ask – no, I cannot, for the love of me, write plays in English. Nor fiction in Russian.
I was born in Kiev, in a Ukrainian-Russian family, where people to this day argue about who gets to have Sevastopol. I have spent most of my life in the United States. In the South. It wasn’t like “True Blood,” but it was sort of like being in Rivendell, when, you know, the hobbits are exhausted and Frodo has this “mortal wound” crap going on, and suddenly they can all just finally chill and then.. OK, never mind. More recently, I lived in the Middle East – where I learned what Jerusalem is worth. Then, back in Ukraine again – where I had many adventures and became a playwright because I couldn’t do it any other way. Now I am in Russia.
I once won a decorative bust of Frodo in a photo contest and consider Jean-Luc Picard to be a pretty close approximation of the perfect man. I also once made a poem out of my favourite books list on Facebook (it does occasionally get tweaked as new books are added. And no, I don’t scope out titles in stores to see if they would fit the scheme):
Human Croquet, The Master and Margarita, Lolita, The Lord of the Rings, The Book of Lost Things, American Gods, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Secret History, The White Guard, The Hero and the Crown, Written On the Body, Fragile Things, Wicked, Harry Potter, As I Lay Dying, The Beach, The Life of Arsenyev, The Death of Ivan Ilych, Not the End of the World
This is a personal blog, and does not reflect the opinions of my family, friends, and employers, past, present, and future.
The work on this blog is protected, and some of my best friends happen to be mean, saber-toothed IP lawyers. Just sayin.
Banner image ⓒ Andrei Popov/RIA Novosti. 2010.
[...] Natalia Antonova was born in Kiev, went to Duke and writes like an angel. Her blog is unclassifiable, but for once that’s not a criticism. I loved it and wish I had several days to read everything she’s written. I don’t, not if I have any hope of keeping my family fed and myself employed. But in the time I spent there, this made me want to cry. This had me howling. And this photo of a gorgeous footballer from Chelsea made me wish I was British, just so maybe I’d run into him someday in the pouring rain and he’d hand me an umbrella or something. [...]
[...] hat ein Fatwa gegen Ehrenmorde erlassen. Via. [...]
I just read this!
I am also the only jerk I know who’s able to mix Glenfiddich with diet Pepsi and not bat an eyelash nor shed a tear.
This cracked me up.
A ya Nikita Antonov iz Kieva. Privet!
LOL
Привет.
You are a fantastic writer, although I’m not sure how I feel about your tainting of single malt with aspertane-water.
*subscribe*
Thank you.
Natalia,
I am the chief editor of the Kyiv Post. I am writing to see if you are interested in allowing us to post your blogs on our website in the bloggers section – and link it back to your site. I see you write about many issues relevant to our readers.
Thanks, Brian Bonner
Hi Brian, good to “meet” you. I’m not entirely sure how relevant this blog is for the readers of the Kyiv Post, but I will trust your judgment. It’s cool if you use my blog posts, but please let me know if you intend to edit anything. Also, I would not like for any posts tagged as “stories” to be used, for various reasons. Thanks.
Dear Natalia,
I´m Paula Campos and I’m working for Chorus+Echo, a new web magazine and community powered by over 200 bloggers in 20 cities across the World, talking about a wide range of subjects… from Design to Arts.
Alongside the site we will also be holding physical events and think tanks in our launch cities, connecting creative, government and business leaders together to solve common problems with the help of other likeminded individuals globally.
The site will initially be only available in English. This means our search is made harder, as are trying to amazing global city blogs written in English and based in Moscow. I hoped you might be able to help us identify some of the best blogs in your city, we are especially looking for Design, Technology, Arts and Ideas.
Thank you very much.
Hello from London,
We just wanted to stop by and let you know that we love what you’re doing with your blog. We also wanted to offer a way for us to work together.
Who we are? We’re two London based editors with deceptively French sounding names. We travel, read and engage in creative projects across the board and know how difficult it can be to find inspiring content written by local people. So we’re doing something about it by starting Chorus+Echo – http://www.chorusandecho.com – C+E is way to give our readers informed access to ideas and cities across the World, while at the same time giving our family of contributors a far larger audience and an opportunity for them to make a little bit (but hopefully a lot!) more money from their content.
We have spent months pouring over thousands upon thousands of blogs and sites and have decided to launch in 20 cities with a handful of blogs in each. We would love to work with you here in London, in Moscow and beyond. We would use the content you post up on your blog, so there’s no extra work for you at all. At the same time you would be credited for any content, which means extra traffic for nataliaantonova.com.
With the launch of C+E imminent, we’ve put together the first in our series of launch events in TOKYO [woo hoo!] between March 15th-22nd. We’ll be meeting up with several of our contributors from Tokyo, meeting boutique and shop owners, interviewing several creative and business leaders from lecturers and architects to designers and musicians, being interviewed by local press and also holding a C+E event with London Calling at ELEVEN where I will be headlining.
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch with either of us. We can send you more info about the project.
Hope you’re interested in getting involved!
Jean-Robert and Luc Le Corre
Sounds like a cool project, but I would need to take a look at the fine print.
Hi. I was wondering, given your opinion of the Soviet Union on Feministe, what’s your view of the Romanovs and whether they deserved execution in Yekaterinburg?
Er. Well of course the Romanovs didn’t “deserve execution.” The hell?
I am very much offended by Natalia Antonova, whom I think to be a wilfully dishonest invididual. Your videos with Anna Arrowtunan, on promoting Russia, include serious misinformation. Most Russian women would consider a woman who goes back to the former USSR and marries a local to be some kind of nutcase. Russia is a corrupt land, where females struggle to survive, and yet that is something you never mention in your so-called “video rants.” Try to be more honest about Russia for a change – women who have escaped the situation will thank you for it.
Signed,
Married to a beautiful Russian woman
The above comment is beautiful. Simply beautiful.