[2][3] Draitser has given numerous public lectures and book talks at universities and cultural centers in the United States, Canada, the UK, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia.
As a young student, Draitser excelled at literature and decided that he wanted to be a journalist, despite his mother's preference that he study engineering.
His work has appeared in leading Russian journals (including Youth, Literary Gazette, and Crocodile) under his pen name 'Emil Abramov'.
Eventually, Draitser wrote an article critical of an important official which led to him being blacklisted, and prompted him to leave for the United States.
(New York: Possev-USA, 1984) ISBN 0-911971-03-3 (Moscow: Moskovskii rabochii, 1993) Making War, Not Love: Gender and Sexuality in Russian Humor.