Deborah Martinsen, a distinguished scholar and teacher of Slavic literature at Columbia University, specialized in Dostoevsky. She wrote and edited groundbreaking books and articles on narrative theory and on Dostoevsky's works, including Dostoevsky in Context, Surprised by Shame, Literary Journals in Imperial Russia, and Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment": A Reader's Guide. She served as President of the International Dostoevsky Society.