Valzhyna Mort was born in 1981 in Minsk, Belarus. Her poetry has been translated into many European languages and published in various literary magazines and anthologies. A dynamic reader, in 2004 she received the Crystal of Velenica Award in Slovenia, which is awarded for reading performances. She currently lives in Virginia. Elizabeth Oehlkers Wright's translations of Zafer Senocak, Zehra Cirak and other contemporary German poets have appeared widely in literary magazines and anthologies. She received an NEA Fellowship for Poetry Translation in 2003 and is German-language contributing editor for the forthcoming anthology New European Poets (Graywolf). Franz Wright is the author of several volumes of poetry, including Walking to Martha's Vineyard (2003), which received a Pulitzer Prize. He has also translated poems by René Char, Erica Pedretti, and Rainer Maria Rilke. He lives in Waltham, Massachusetts.

A young Belarussian poet co-translated by Pulitzer Prize-winner Franz Wright, who calls Valzhyna Mort "Electrifying!"