Regina Derieva was born in Odessa and grew up in the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan, in a Jewish home marked by Marxism and militant atheism. As an adult, she became disappointed with the Russian Orthodox Church and turned to Catholicism. Her first poem was published in 1965 and her first collection in 1978. During her lifetime, she wrote around thirty books of poetry, essays, and prose. Her works include Alien Matter: New and Selected Poems, The Sum Total of Violations, and Corinthian Copper. In 2009, the Catholic Church of Sweden awarded her the Ora Et Labora medal for her literary work to benefit the Church. She died of heart failure on December 11, 2013 at the age of 64.
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