Joy Womack is a ballerina, currently working at the Paris Opera. She has a combined social media following of approximately 75,000 across all platforms, was featured in a 2021 independent documentary,Joy Womack: The White Swan, and is also the subject of a biopic film,Joika, set to premiere in 2023. Her story has been followed by news outlets around the world, includingThe New York Times,The Moscow Times,Reuters,Time Magazine, theL.A. Times,NBC News.
Elizabeth Shockman is a public radio journalist based in Minnesota with nationally and internationally published work atNPR,PRI,MPR,Reuters,The Moscow Times,BBC, andmany other publications. Elizabeth met Joy while working for Reuters in Moscow and has spent more than 12 years interviewing her for this book.