Yevgeny Yevtushenko is an internationally known and often controversial Russian poet, novelist, and filmmaker. He has has toured the world to present readings of his works, now translated into seventy-two languages. He has visited 94 countries and read his poems in every American state. Read More Some of his most famous works include two poems published in 1961,"Nasledriki Stalina" and "Babi Yar." His film career began in the 1950s, and he contributed to several Soviet films in the 1960s. In 1979, he was the lead in Vzlyot (Take-Off), playing a Russian rocket scientist. Yevtushenko contributed as a writer and director to Detsky Sad (Kindergarten) in 1983 and Pokhorony Stalina (Stalin’s Funeral) in 1990. He has served as Distinguished Professor in the English Department of the University of Tulsa for seventeen years, and has also taught at Queens College in New York and the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Ogoniok magazine editorial board, the European Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts.