Brett Ash­ley Kaplan Directs the Ini­tia­tive in Holo­caust, Geno­cide, Mem­o­ry Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois where she is a pro­fes­sor of Com­par­a­tive and World Lit­er­a­ture. She pub­lish­es in Haaretz, The Con­ver­sa­tion, Salon​.com, AJS Per­spec­tives, Con­tem­po­rary Lit­er­a­ture, Edge Effects, and The Jew­ish Review of Books. She has been inter­viewed on NPR, the AJS Pod­cast, and The 21st, and is the author of Unwant­ed Beau­ty, Land­scapes of Holo­caust Post­mem­o­ry, and Jew­ish Anx­i­ety and the Nov­els of Philip Roth. She is at work on a sec­ond nov­el, Van­dervelde Downs.