Upon returning to Moscow, he continued to practice medicine, co-authored a textbook on clinical cardiology, and founded a publishing house, Practica, which specialized in medical, musical, and theological material.

His debut collection in English, Rock, Paper, Scissors and Other Stories, translated by Boris Dralyuk, Alex Fleming and Anne Marie Jackson, appeared in April 2019 from NYRB Classics, followed by a second compilation (Kilometer 101) in 2022.

It’s not the subject matter that I find central to short fiction, but style and form, which far exceed content in their importance.

Being deeply knowledgeable about your material — in my case, about medicine and, to a lesser extent, religion, music, theater, politics, even chess — is not essential, however much it may help.

Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich writes of the lingering impact of his stories: "When you delve into Osipov’s texts you see that they are deceptively simple, just like Shalamov’s: Behind this childish ordinariness there lies a hidden chasm.