About the Author

Ilhan Berk, one of Turkey's most influential and innovative poets, was born in the Aegean city of Manisa. He was the award-winning author of more than two dozen books of poetry, as well as volumes of critical and biographical prose. He was also an acclaimed visual artist. Berk lived for much of his life in the town of Bodrum where he died in 2008, aged 90.George Messo is a poet, editor and teacher, and one of the world's leading translators of Turkish poetry. His many books include From the Pine Observatory (2000), Aradaki Ses (The In-Between Voice, 2005), Entrances (2006), Avrupa'nin Kucuk Tanrilari (The Little Gods of Europe, 2007) and Violades & Appledown (2012). His ground-breaking anthology Ikinci Yeni: The Turkish Avant Garde was published by Shearsman in 2009, and his translation of Birhan Keskin's poems, & Silk & Love & Flame, was published by Arc in 2010. He is the former editor of Near East Review.