About
Vica Miller is a native of St. Petersburg (Russia) and has been a New Yorker for over three decades. George Plimpton called her a writer, and she believed him. Her first novel, INGA’S ZIGZAGS, was published on May 14, 2014 by Ladno Books. It has been translated into Russian and slotted for publication in Russia in 2022, but the ban on "gay propaganda" put it on hold.
Vica is the co-founder (2021) of UNA VIDA. NO PLAN, a life transformation company based in Cabarete, DR, and the founder (2009) and curator of the Vica Miller Literary Salons, New York City’s favorite chamber reading series held in private art galleries. She's written for Vogue Russia and Tennis Week magazines, and her short stories have appeared in LitroNY, The Jet Fuel Review, Asymptote, The Linnet's Wings, and Thrice Fiction literary journals.
Vica is a veteran of the communications industry and a recognized expert in public relations. For 15 years she has served as a Senior VP of Global Communications at a leading tech firm. Prior to that she ran her own consulting firm, worked as Director of Marketing for the Kremlin Cup ATP tennis tournament and was among online music pioneers at Sonicnet (now MTVi). She has launched (1997) and taught the first New Media course at Hunter College (CUNY), now a comprehensive graduate IMA program, and later (2003) taught Public Relations there.
Vica holds a BA in Film and Media from Hunter College, MPS from ITP - Interactive Telecommunications Program - at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and has completed graduate coursework for MA in Social Psychology at Harvard Extension School, where her research focused on creativity and self-doubt.
She is an excellent swimmer, a beginner paraglider, an obsessed surfer, an intermediate cellist, and a mother of two. She's also a big fan of burlesque and has synesthesia, which makes her life full of color. She’s working on her third novel.
Featured Work
Inga's Zigzags
“If you're going to read one bisexual management consulting Russian novel this year, please, dear god, make it this one." — Gary Shteyngart
Inga's Zigzags is the story of a 28-year-old Russian woman who, after a decade in New York, returns to post-perestroika Moscow to start her own business. When her prospects fall through and she finds herself far from the heart of the action, she meets Emma and Alexandra, a pair of wealthy and well-connected magazine publishers, who lure Inga into their bed and then propose to launch a company together. When the threesome starts to fall apart, Inga is forced to make some difficult choices to find her way through the labyrinth of Moscow's intrigues and heartbreaks, to reclaim her destiny.
The book is about evolving, finding one's place in life, about a yearning to belong and feel accepted. Inga Belova is a New Yorker who has an MBA but feels misplaced. She is a double single – as in, divorced with no boyfriend – but then she finds double love. Yet she continues to feel in between – countries, jobs, lovers. She questions her sexuality, national identity, career and loyalty. Will she ever settle? Whom does she love? What is her life's calling? To find the answers, we follow her from New York to Moscow to St. Petersburg to Miami to London and then to Moscow again.
Other Works
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The Shadow of the Blue Doll // novel (unpublished)
2018
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The Table // in Litro NY
2015
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Aunt Lucy // in Jet Fuel Review
2015
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Charlie's Angel // in Thrice Fiction
2013
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Vica Miller on Lyudmila Ulitskaya // in Asymptote
2012
Press and Media Mentions
- The New Yorker //Above and Beyond // Vica Miller Literary Salons - An evening with Russian-American writers
- Kirkus Review // A sexy tale with plenty of Russian atmosphere
- Russia Beyond // A long-distance romance: Russia-born writers in the U.S.
- Book Culture Blog // Q&A with Vica Miller
- LAMBDA Literary // ‘Inga’s Zigzags’ by Vica Miller
- The Three Tomatoes // Inga's Zigzags - a Delicious, Sensuous, Thoroughly Satisfying Read
- The Literary Cafe // Vica Miller Salon
- The Four Seasons Magazine // Modern Salons from London to Dubai
- BUST // Host a Modern-Day Literary Salon