Kurtis R. Schaeffer is the Frances Myers Ball Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He is a student of the literary history and culture of Tibet, with a particular interest in poetry, life writing, narrative, and contemplative literature from across the Tibetan plateau. His books include听Himalayan Hermitess: The Life of a Tibetan Buddhist Nun;听The Culture of the Book in Tibet, and (with Matthew Kapstein and Gray Tuttle)听Sources of Tibetan Tradition, which is the largest anthology of Tibetan Buddhist literature in translation to date. Most recently he published听The Life of the Buddha听in the Penguin Classics series,听which includes a translation of a beautiful Bhutanese story of the Buddha from Bhutan鈥檚 golden age of literature. He is currently finishing a translation of select works of Tibetan meditation literature, also for the Penguin Classics series.