Lauded as one of the most important contemporary Chinese poets, Yang Jian was born in Anhui province in 1967. He paints in ink and leads a Buddhist life in Ma'anshan.

Fiona Sze-Lorrain's recent poetry collection is The Ruined Elegance (Princeton, 2016). Also a zheng harpist and translator, she has been a Abigail R. Cohen Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris.

Christopher Merrill directs the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.