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Olga Alexandrovna Markelova is a writer and literary scholar. Since 2001, her life has been closely connected with the languages, literature and cultures of Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Born in Moscow, she obtained her B.Phil.Isl. (Baccalaureus philologiae Islandicae) from the University of Iceland (2004), and her Ph.D. in Scandinavian Literature from Moscow State University (2005). Her topic was The Emergence of a Faroese National Literature and the Formation of National Consciousness in the Faroe Islands. Published in 2006, this book was the first research into Faroese literature ever to have appeared in Russia. Olga A. Markelova writes poems in Russian, Icelandic and Danish, and prose in Russian and Icelandic. Most of these can be found on her website.

She has also translated many texts of prose and poetry from Icelandic, Faroese and Danish into Russian: by, among others, Hallgrímur Helgason, Sigurður Pálsson, Svava Jakobsdóttir, Gerður Kristný, Jónas Hallgrímsson, from Icelandic; and from Faroese and Danish, Jens Hendrik Oliver Djurhuus, Christian Matras, William Heinesen, Lydia Dideriksen and Gunnar Hoydal. Her poems, stories, translations and research articles appear frequently in magazines and journals in Russia and Iceland. As a hobby, Olga makes original dolls. These are often based on the characters in the Icelandic novels that she translates into Russian and, in turn, they give her inspiration for new writing.