BIO
Ludmila Begley is an artist, poet, writer, translator and editor based in Rochester, NY.
She was born in Chisinau, Moldova, to a multiethnic (Romanian, Greek, Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian) as well as bilingual (Romanian and Russian) family, and became trilingual (English) by the age of 11. She holds two Master's Degrees with distinction: one in American Studies (American post-modernist literature) from Moldova State University, and another - in Creative Writing from the University of Warwick, alongside BA in English and French Philology, Certified Professional Diplomas in Graphic and Interior Design, and Tarot Reading/Analysis. For the past three years she has been in Shamanic Practitioner Training. Her professional careers include political interpretation, university teaching, and creative direction in advertising, as well as freelancing in graphic design, translation, and literary editing.
Her first novel, ‘Empty and Want to Sleep’ was a Chapter One Promotions finalist in 2012, and several of her poems were shortlisted in Bridport Prize for Poetry in 2021 and in 2023.
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Prior to settling in Rochester, Upstate NY, she lived and worked in Moldova, England, and Germany. Her multicultural/multiethnic background and the nomadic development of her life have led to a vast array of artistic and cultural inspirations and influences one can find in her poetic and art- work, ranging from Shakespeare and De Coster to Nabokov and Fallada; from Brueghel and Bosch to Schiele and Chagall. She chooses to no identify herself within limiting frameworks of any one given ethnicity, nationality, culture, style, or school of creation, but rather proceed as an ever-growing, ever-expanding, ever-changing, and, above all, ever-learning artist and human advocating for universal equality, relevance, and worth.
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