Jake Zawlacki is a writer, translator, and scholar. He holds a master’s degree in Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian studies from Stanford University and an MFA from Louisiana State University. He received a Fulbright Fellowship to the Kyrgyz Republic, and he has written scholarly works on Kazakh animation and folklore, as well as on traditional Kyrgyz health practices. His creative work, which often explores meaning and free will through experimental and metafictional forms, can be found at The Saturday Evening Post, The Journal, and The Citron Review. Additional translations of Ahmet Baitursynuly’s work can be found at The Antonym.