Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930) was a playwright, screenwriter, film director, actor, artist, editor, representative of the first wave of the Russian literary avant-garde, and one of the most influential Russian poets of the twentieth century.
Katherine E. Young is the author of Day of the Border Guards. She is the translator of Farewell, Aylis by Azerbaijani political prisoner Akram Aylisli (forthcoming 2018), as well as Blue Birds and Red Horses (forthcoming 2018) and Two Poems, both by Russian poet Inna Kabysh. Young was named a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts translation fellow and currently serves as the inaugural poet laureate for Arlington, Virginia.