Venya Gushchin is a poet, literary translator, and assistant professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Southern California. His translations of Vladimir Mayakovsky and Elizaveta Mnatsakanova have received the Columbia University Slavic Department Pushkin Prize. His translation of Blockade Swallow, selected poems by Olga Berggolts, appeared from Smokestack Books in 2022. His translation of the Russian-language Kalmyk poet Dordzhi Dzhaldzhireev is forthcoming from World Poetry Books in 2027. His writing has appeared in The Rumpus; Exchanges; Ballast Journal; No, Dear; and elsewhere.