Andrew Wachtel is the author of The Balkans in World History (Oxford University Press, 2008); Russian Literature (Polity Press, 2008), with Ilya Vinitsky; and Remaining Relevant After Communism: The Role of the Writer in Eastern Europe (University of Chicago Press, 2006). His book of translations of the Russian poet Anzhelina Polonskaya, Paul Klee’s Boat (Zephyr Press, 2014), was short-listed for the 2014 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he is the rector of Narxoz University in Almaty.