To feel free of the sometimes-alienating obligation to be or represent the ideal self, Yelena Moskovich turns to writing, where she finds herself having the most freedom of expression. The rhythm in every piece of her writing is essential – it’s how she knows the text is alive, how she feels where it will move next. Yelena writes with a similar sensation to remembering, not by planning or structuring ahead of time but through the process of spontaneous discovery. And indeed, the notion of discovery is central to her work: her novel Virtuoso (2019) follows the story of two young women spinning through communist Prague, post-Soviet America and Paris as they uncover their identities and desires.