About the Author

Hal Sirowitz is the former Poet Laureate of Queens, New York. He served for three years, beginning in 2000. He has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, The MacDowell Artist Colony, Ragdale, among others. He has been a recipient of the New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and the National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Poetry. The Metropolitan Transportation Agency and the Poetry Society of America selected one of his poems to appear on New York City Buses and Subways. His poetry has been selected for many anthologies, including ones edited by Billy Collins, Alan Kaufman, and Garrison Keillor. Keillor has performed his poetry on his radio show The Writer's Almanac and has recently included an interview with him for The Writer's Almanac Bookshelf. His poetry has been published in Ploughshares, Beloit Poetry Journal, River Styx, New Letters, and many others. The composers Alla Borzova and David Eddleman have put some of his poems to music, and it has been performed at Symphony Space, Lincoln Center, Aspen Music Festival, and other venues. His poetry and books have been translated into thirteen languages, including Portuguese, Macedonian, Icelandic, Korean, Hebrew, Turkish, and Japanese. He now resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.