Immigrating toward Success

IWW member Mark Budman, Editor/Publisher of Vestal Review has enjoyed significant recognition in the popular press -- venues like People Magazine -- upon publishing his novel My Life at First Try.

Mark's story ...

I immigrated to America back in 1980. I used to write fiction in Russian, but switched to English in the late eighties. I struggled like the rest of us, maybe a tad harder. My English-language novel My Life at First Try came out from Counterpoint Press last November. It received great reviews and publicity, even from People magazine, but I dreamed about having my novel published in my native tongue as well. Back in February, a Moscow-based publisher Olimp bought foreign rights from Counterpoint. The novel will be published within a year. It’s ironic that a book written in my second language will be published in my first and that someone else will translate it. Yet a dream came true.