Tomaž Šalamun (1941–2014), a Slovenian born in Zagreb, Croatia, is considered one of the great postwar Central European poets. Among his books translated into English are The Blue Tower (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011), On the Tracks of Wild Game (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2012), and Soy Realidad (Dalkey Archive Press, 2014). Šalamun taught at the Universities of Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Massachusetts, Pittsburgh, and Richmond, and was invited to be member of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 1971. He also spent several years as cultural attaché to the Slovenian Consulate in New York. He lived in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Christopher Merrill has published seven collections of poetry, including Watch Fire, for which he received the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets; many edited volumes and translations; and six books of nonfiction, among them, Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars; The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expedition, War; and Self-Portrait with Dogwood. As director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa since 2000, Merrill has conducted cultural diplomacy missions to more than fifty countries. (updated 12/2021)
Merrill’s Watch Fire was reviewed in AGNI 42 by Agha Shahid Ali.