Author’s Biography

Born in Texas and raised in the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) of Georgia, USA, Christina E. Petrides lived and worked in Washington, DC (2003-2013), and on Jeju Island, Republic of Korea (2017-2023), before returning to the CSRA.

Her first children's book, Blueberry Man, was published in 2020 by Tchaikovsky Family Books (Jeju Island, South Korea). 블루베리 맨, the Korean translation of Blueberry Man, was published in 2021. Christina’s second children’s book, The Refrigerator Ghost, was first published in Korean translation as 냉장고 유령 by Kong Books (Seoul, South Korea) in 2022. Christina and Tchaikovsky Family Books collaborated again on her third children’s book, Tea Cakes, Quilts, and Sonshine (issued simultaneously as 할머니의 사랑 레시피), in 2022. Mr. Fisher’s Whiskers, her fourth children’s book, was published in 2024 by Cep Books, the American company which published the English version of The Refrigerator Ghost in late 2023.

Christina’s fifth children’s book, My Batty Aunt Betty, is being published by Cep Books in 2026. Coincidentally, her sixth children’s book (the first of a five-book series about a rescue cat in the waning days of the Soviet Union), Grisha: A Soviet Cat, is going to print simultaneously. Christina anticipates more installments of the Grisha series (which she wrote in the Aughts) to be ready to print in late 2026 and early 2027. A portion of the proceeds from the Grisha series will be donated to a charity in Kyiv, Ukraine, that supports widows, orphans, and wounded warriors.

Scores of Christina’s poems have been published in English by periodicals (online and print) around the world since she began writing verse in 2018; a handful have been translated into Russian. In late 2022, Kelsay Books (USA) published On Unfirm Terrain, Christina’s first book-length volume of verse (a collection of previously-published pieces augmented by new work). Kelsay Books published Christina’s second collection, The Laughing Calvinist, in late 2025.

While she was enrolled in the Russian history doctoral program at Georgetown University, Christina co-translated Maria Shelyakhovskaya’s Утверждение в любви. История одной семьи. 1872-1981 (Being Grounded in Love: A History of One Russian Family, 1872-1981), into English manuscript. Being Grounded in Love was published in August 2023 by Three String Books, an imprint of Slavica Publishers (USA). All Christina’s proceeds from sales of this book have been donated to the aforementioned charity in Kyiv.

Christina continues to create stories for children, update her Substack (writing for adults), and conduct independent historical research. In particular, she is currently supplementing her maternal grandfather’s World War II memoirs, and revising her 180,000-word journal about her undergraduate trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1995 (whether this is published as creative nonfiction or morphs into a novel has yet to be determined), and reworking her 2001 International Studies MA thesis (University of South Carolina) about the plunder of cultural valuables in light of events in the Baltic States and Ukraine. She is also in the midst of drafting a book about the estate sale industry in the Washington, DC, area.

Christina also freelances as a Russian-English translator and as an editor (particularly for books and essays in English by writers who primarily speak other languages) and as a writing coach. She reads her work and discusses the book-creation process in schools and through English literacy programs (in person throughout the American Southeast, and online worldwide).

Christina periodically updates her Amazon.com author page (many of her books are available to purchase there, but you can also order them directly here) and Goodreads.com author page with her latest work.