Lars Gustafsson is one of Sweden's leading and most prolific men of letters--a poet, philosopher, and fiction writer with dozens of books to his credit. He was awarded his Ph.D. in Theoretical Philosophy in 1978 and taught for many years at the University of Texas. He currently lives in Sweden. John Irons is the translator of dozens of Northern European writers including Inger Christensen (Danish), Thomas Transtromer (Swedish), Friedrich Holderlin (German). He lives in Denmark.