Ross Perlin is a linguist, writer, and co-director of the non-profit Endangered Language Alliance. His most recent book, Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York, won the British Academy Book Prize and the New York City Book Award, and was named a New York Times Notable Book. He has overseen extensive research on language documentation and policy, specifically focused on Himalayan languages, and currently teaches linguistics at Columbia University.

As a translator and writer, Perlin has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and Harper's, and has translated major works from Chinese into English. A former National Yiddish Book Center Translation Fellow, he has also produced Yiddish-language video series for The Forward. He holds degrees from Stanford, Cambridge, and SOAS, a PhD from the University of Bern, and is currently a 2025-26 Nina Maria Gorrissen Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin.