Zinovy Zinik is a novelist and broadcaster. He was born in Moscow in 1945. He studied art and later geometrical topology at Moscow University. He emigrated in 1975 and worked as a theatre director for a student theatre group in Jerusalem. Since 1976 he has lived and worked in London. He regularly contributes to BBC Radio, the Times Literary Supplement and to other periodicals. He is editor and presenter of West End, a weekly radio show for the BBC Russian Service. Zinovy's seven novels have been translated into a number of European languages. His novel The Mushroom Picker was made into a film for BBC Television in 1994. His novel Russian Service, as well as a number of his short stories, were adapted for BBC Radio 3 and for Radio France. During the 1990s three of his novels in Russian were nominated for the Russian Booker in Moscow. Zinik's dramatic farce Here Comes the Tiger, set to music by Gerard McBurney, was first performed by The Gogmagogs at the London City Festival in 1999. His radio documentary on Berlin, After the Wall, (with Claudia Sinnig) was awarded the Bronze Medal at the New York International Radio Festival in 2001. His documentary radio drama My Father's Leg was broadcast by BBC Radio 3 in 2003. Zinik's recent collection of short stories Mind the Doors was published in 2002 by Context Books, New York. Zinovy is a member of The Colony Room Club in Soho.
