My colleagues might have seen this news on LinkedIn: my translation of “Tamara Khristoforovna,” a short story by Margarita Ardasheva from Russia has been published in Tupelo Quarterly.
This whimsical story of a disgruntled teacher with a hidden passion looks at being true to yourself and doing what you love. The Russian story (“Тамара Христофоровна”) first appeared in New Youth.
Tamara Khristoforovna works in Lennon Preparatory High School. She imparts high-quality, lasting knowledge, which consists of telling children that she is their mother-in-math, and they are nothing but back-alley trollops. When Tamara Khristoforovna gets really emotional, she adds that only prostitutes wear black pantyhose. What about socks and stockings of that color? The jury’s still out on that one. It is also unclear how Tamara Khristoforovna knows so much about prostitutes.
Maria Guzenko 