Michael Kandel was a Fulbright student in Poland, 1966-67; taught Russian literature at George Washington University; received his PhD in Slavic at Indiana University; translated Polish writer Stanislaw Lem for Harcourt; wrote a few articles on Lem; worked as an editor at Harcourt, where he acquired authors Jonathan Lethem, Ursula K. Le Guin, James Morrow, and others; has written science fiction, short stories, and a few novels (Bantam, St. Martin's); and is presently an editor at the Modern Language Association. He is the editor and translator of the anthology A Polish Book of Monsters.