"Raups? poetry is best enjoyed with the lights out. There is a comfort with the darkness that is rare and exhilarating -- this poetry is not apocalyptic -- it is wholly accepting of fate. Raups? work is emotive, cerebral -- like "a dark bruise at the temples." -- Brandon Henderson, Managing Editor, Cutbank. "Born in Riga, Latvia, poet and translator Margita Gailitis immigrated to Canada as a child. Gailitis returned to Riga in 1998 to work at the Translation and Terminology Center as part of a Canadian International Development Agency initiative. Today Gailitis focuses her energy on literary translation and poetry, having translated some of Latvia's finest poetry, prose and dramaturgy. Gailitis' own poetry has been widely published has won her awards from both the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.""

Edvins Raups was born in Sigulda, Latvia, in 1962 and studied at the Riga Polytechnics Institute and at the English Language and Literature Department of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Latvia. His poetry collections Veja nav (No Wind, 1991) and Dzivo damies (Live-ing, 1995) earned him one of the most original poetry debuts of his time. Raups is considered to be one of the greatest innovators in Latvian poetry from the 1990s. The year 1997 saw the publication of Raups' collection 33 miklaini dzives gadi un dzejoli (33 Mysterious Years and Poems). Raups is the recipient of several important Latvian literary honours, including the Award of Days of Poetry (2003), Oliveretto Award in Poetry (2006), and the Award for the Best Collection of Poetry of the Year (2008).