Also known by her nickname Umka, Anna Gerasimova is a Russian rock singer and songwriter, the leader of the band 'Umka and Bronevik'. She is also a poet, literary translator, literature researcher, traveler and a significant person in the Russian hippie movement. Songs written and sung by Umka have become well-known among the Soviet hippies since 1986. But two years later, she stopped writing songs and switched to philological work and translations. As a professional philologist, Anna published scholarly articles on history of the Russian avant-garde literature. Her most significant published translations include Jack Kerouac's 'The Dharma Bums' (1994) and 'Big Sur' (2002).
