Mark Axelrod is a Professor of Comparative Literature in the Department of English at Chapman University, Orange, California, and has been Director of the John Fowles Center for Creative Writing for 23 years. His latest fiction books include Balzac's Coffee, DaVinci's Ristorante and the translation of Balzac's play, Mercadet, which was retitled, Waiting for Godeau, and Beckett's Bar, Pushkin's Vodka. His latest books of literary criticism include, Madness in Fiction: Literary Essays from Poe to Fowles and his book, Notions of Otherness: Literary Essays from Cahan to Maraini were published by Palgrave and Anthem respectively. His screenplay, MALARKEY, based on his novel, The Mad Diary of Malcolm Malarkey, PhD, has garnered the interest of Malcolm McDowell and is currently being shopped. He was inducted into the European Academy of Arts and Sciences, Salzburg in 2017.