Yevgeny Yevtushenko was born in 1933 in the Siberian village of Zima. His family has Russian, Ukrainian and Tatar roots. He is a poet, film director, and has worked as a teacher. He has written novels, essays, plays, screenplays, directed, edited and even acted in movies. His poems have appeared since 1949, and in the 50s and ‘60s his work was adopted by the American beat generation. Shostakovich composed several works of music inspired by his words, and he has had a large number of books published in various languages. Besides winning numerous awards, he has also been a nominee for the Nobel Prize.