About Anzhelina Polonskaya: ANZHELINA POLONSKAYA was born in Malakhovka, a small town near Moscow. Since 1998, she has been a member of the Moscow Union of Writers, and in 2003, she became a member of the Russian PEN Center. In 2004, Northwestern University Press published an English version of her book, A Voice, which was shortlisted for the Corneliu M. Popescu Prize for European Poetry in Translation. In 2019, Zephyr Press published a collection of Polonskaya’s work entitled To the Ashes. ANDREW WACHTEL is co-founder and director of Compass College of Art and Design in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Before coming to Central Asia, he was dean of The Graduate School and director of the Roberta Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern University. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, his interests range from Russian literature and culture to East European and Balkan culture, history, and politics to contemporary Central Asia. He also works as a translator from multiple Slavic languages and consults on educational projects throughout Eurasia.