Zakhar Prilepin was born near Ryazan in 1975. He led an unsettled life before dedicating himself to writing, spending time as a student, a laborer, a journalist and as a soldier, serving with the Special Forces in Chechnya. Prilepin has come to the public attention not only as one of the best writers of his generation, but as a committed, and often controversial, political activist on behalf of the 'Other Russia' coalition. While living in Nizhny Novgorod, he was the regional editor of independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta (New Newspaper). He took part in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, but left the territory of the DPR in July 2018. He has since then been residing in Russia.

Prilepin's combination of lucid prose and social consciousness has made him one of the most popular and acclaimed writers in Russia today, drawing comparisons with the Russian classics. His novel Sankya, which draws on his own experiences to depict life among young political extremists, was shortlisted for the Russian Booker in 2007, when it also won the Yasnaya Polyana Award and the Best Foreign Novel of the Year Award in China. His novel The Monastery is winner of the Book of the Year Award in 2014, a winner of the Book Runet-2014 Award, and winner of the Big Book Prize in 2014. Prelipin's Sankya and Sin are both available from Glagoslav Publications.