Akram Aylisli is an Azerbaijani writer, playwright, novelist, and editor. His works have been translated from his native Azeri into more than 20 languages. The 2012 publication of his novella Stone Dreams led to book burnings and the continuous harassment of the author himself. Since 2016 he has lived under a politically motivated criminal investigation and corresponding restrictions on his activities in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Katherine E. Young is the author of the poetry collections Woman Drinking Absinthe and Day of the Border Guards and the editor of Written in Arlington. She is the translator of work by Anna Starobinets (memoir), Akram Aylisli (fiction), and numerous Russophone poets. Young was named a 2017 National Endowment for the Art translation fellow. From 2016-2018, she served as the inaugural Poet Laureate for Arlington, Virginia.