Born in the Caucasus in a mixed-origin family of philologists, Aneliya is currently based in the UK. Her debut book, a collection of fairy tales, was published when she was 22. Yet, after getting a Liberal Arts degree from Bard’s College Department of Philology she pursued a music career, supporting herself along with writing jobs: covering classical music events, ghostwriting essays for US college students, creating cinema articles, editing & translating movie scripts and funding applications. After writing for screen & stage, mid-life crisis & cryptic dreams, she decided to fully apply herself to writing.
As of now, Aneliya has two collections of fairy tales published as hardcovers in her native Russian and in translation, while her English poetry has been featured in the likes of Poetry Matters and Plum Tree Tavern. A feature-length film, the comical fantasy "Gary, Barry, Larry and Countess of Noral", for which she co-wrote a screenplay, is soon to be premiered to the public. Her miniature play about a primate navigating a human society was premiered in London in 2021, being selected for the anniversary Bureau of Silly Ideas show. “Dream Trance'” – an animated story investigating the roots of violence through the relationship of a cat and a monkey, co-written with an artist le___capucin, was shown within the official programmes of the Anti-War International Film Festival (Estonia, 2023) and Diametrale Festival (Austria, 2024).
In October 2019 she embarked on a residency at the artistic development organisation Metal in Liverpool, UK, developing and presenting 'Mass1' - a collage composition of poetry and sound, involving chance techniques, site-specific found material and graphic notation. The lyrics were collaged from the phrases collected “on the streets” during the residency. An echo of that experience could be heard in her later works as Gdeto. In the summer of 2023 ada ardor was launched, Aneliya’s latest (last?) solo electronic music project. Rolling Stone magazine has included ada ardor in the list of 20 new artists to follow in 2024, while Phonographme has described her debut EP as a “sophisticated and danceable sound universe full of intimate moments”.
Having visited around 30 countries as a touring musician, performing with a now-euthanised collective, Chkbns, at the likes of KEXP, SXSW, The Great Escape, Reeperbahn Festival, Canadian Music Week, as well as for fellowship projects and art residencies (Goethe Institut, Swedish Institute, British Council), it’s not surprising that Aneliya’s creative practice shows an eclectic blend of references and a tendency for interpreting in-between phenomena. Neither is surprising that her lasting bond with music has influenced the way she approaches text. To get a picture of Aneliya’s current thematic range scroll through the “projects gallery” page. At the moment she’s working on the debut novel in her native Russian and studying contemporary theatre.