Sonia Melnikova lives in San Francisco. She was born in Moscow, (former) USSR, in a bilingual family of three generations of translators and renowned linguists. She is a published translator of selected works in Russian. She collaborated on Prisoner of Time, a feature film about Russian émigré artists in America, awarded at Moscow and Berlin international film festivals. She is currently working for the Center for Citizen Initiative, a nonprofit organization assisting Russia in its transition to a market economy.