Irina Vasilievna Karenina was born on May 12, 1979 in Nizhny Tagil. Graduated from the Literary Institute. She worked as a proofreader, a fashion model, an administrator of a rock group, translated from English, led a drama club for Hare Krishnas, sang in a restaurant, was a theater director, theater critic, press attache of the municipality, chief editor of business and glossy magazines, and documentary film scriptwriter. Author of five books of poems. Scholarship holder of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, laureate of the Znamya magazine award (2011). Currently lives in Minsk, works as an editor at a news agency.