Special Visitors 2007

Peter COLE is a poet and translator of Hebrew and Arabic. His original volumes include Rift (Station Hill) and Hymns & Qualms (Sheep Meadow Press). A third volume, What Is Doubled: Poems 1981-1989, was recently published by Shearsman Books in the UK. His 1996 translation, Selected Poems of Shmuel HaNagid, received the Modern Language Association’s Scaglione Prize for Translation. Other translations from contemporary Hebrew and Arabic literatures are Love & Selected Poems of Aharon Shabtai (Sheep Meadow), J’Accuse, by Aharon Shabtai (New Directions), and So What: New & Selected Poems, 1971-2005 by Taha Muhammad Ali (Copper Canyon Press). Winner of the 2004 PEN-America Translation Award, Cole lives in Jerusalem, where he co-edits Ibis Editions. He is a 2007 MacArthur Fellow.

Maria GALINA (poet, critic, translator, science fiction writer; Russia) grew up in Odessa. She has a degree in marine biology. Her first publication was in Yunost (Youth) in 1991. From 2000-2001, she was a regular columnist for Literatunaya Gazeta. She is currently a chief editor of Drugaya Storona (The Other Side), a non-commercial literature project, and a columnist for the magazine Znamya (Banner). Galina is the recipient of numerous literary awards, including the Novyi Mir Prize in 2005 and the prestigious Moskovski Schyot (The Moscow Tally) in 2006. Galina�s novel, The End of Summer, is available in English translation from Glas publishers (2006, trans. Andrew Bromfield), and her novel Givi i Shenderovich (�Givi and Shenderovich,�) is forthcoming in English. She participates courtesy of the Open World Cultural Leaders Program. (Author photo by Andrey Vasilesky) Bibliography • writing sample

Reginald GIBBONS is a faculty member in Northwestern's Department of English and Classics, where for sixteen years he edited TriQuarterly magazine. He is the author of 30 books, most recently an edited collection of the autobiographical writings of William Goyen entitled Goyen: Autobiographical Essays, Notebooks, Evocations, Interviews. His eighth collection of poems will be published in 2008, and he has also written several poetry chapbooks. He has held Guggenheim and NEA fellowships in poetry, and has won the Anisfield Wolf Book Award, the Carl Sandburg Prize, and the Folger Shakespeare Library's 2004 O. B. Hardison Jr. Poetry Prize. His work has been anthologized in Best American Poetry and The Pushcart Prize.

Iman HUMAYDAN YOUNES (fiction writer, journalist; Lebanon) has published two critically acclaimed novels. Her first, B as in Beirut, was published in 1997, and her second, Wild Mulberries, was published in 2001. Her third novel, Other Lives, will be released in Beirut in 2008. In addition to writing novels, Humaydan is a journalist, researcher and anthropologist. She is a founding member of The Anthropological Society in Lebanon. Humaydan will also be one of the teachers in June 2008 of the inaugural Between the Lines Program. She is participating courtesy of the State Department. (Author photo by Reine Mahfouz) Bibliography

Leonid KOSTYUKOV (poet, prose writer, literary critic, editor; Russia) is a graduate of the Department of Mechanics and Mathematics at Moscow State University, as well as the Literary Institute. His articles, essays, poems, and prose have appeared in Friendship of Nations, Independent Newspaper, Postscriptum, Pushkin, Russian Telegraph, Solo, Week, Weekly Magazine and others. His essay, �On American Culture,� was included in the collection Amerika: Russian Writers View of the United States. His work in Russian includes a collection of short fiction He Returned to Our City and the novel The Great Country. Currently, he is the editor of the multimedia journal, Devushka s Veslom (Girl with an Oar) and a member of the selection committee of the Debut prize, one of Russia�s premiere contests for young writers. He participates courtesy of the Open World Cultural Leaders Program. Bibliography • writing sample

Ilya KUTIK is an acclaimed poet, essayist, and scholar working across Russian and Scandinavian literatures. He has published many volumes of poetry and translations, most recently The Death of Tragedy, and several books of essays and criticism. Other recent titles include The Ode and The Odic: Essays on Mandelstam, Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, and Mayakovsky; Hieroglyphs of Another World: On Poetry, Swedenborg, and Other Matters; and Writing as Exorcism: The Personal Codes of Pushkin, Lermontov, and Gogol. At Northwestern University, he teaches courses in Russian and Scandinavian literature, film and visual arts in the Department of Slavic languages and literatures.

Salman MASALHA (poet; Israel) holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he has taught Arabic language and literature. He is the author of six volumes of poetry in Arabic, most recently Lughat Umm (‘Mother Tongue,’ 2006), and one collection in Hebrew, Ehad Mikan (‘In Place,’ 2004). His articles, columns, poems, and translations have appeared widely in Arabic, Hebrew, and European languages. He currently serves on the editorial board of Masharef, a quarterly Arabic journal. He participates courtesy of the United States-Israel Education Foundation (USIEF). Bibliography • writing sample

NA Teng Choon James (pen name: Yun He, poet; China/The Philippines) was born and educated in the Phillipines. At 17 he published his debut poetry collection, Melancholic Score. More books followed, namely Springtime in Autumn, The Rainbow Snatcher, and The Blue Dust. Na�s poetry explores a range of techniques, from lyric to aesthetic and contemporary forms. In the eighties he published two more collections, Wild Plant and In the Light of Poetry and Photography. His participation is independently funded. writing sample

Lindsay SIMPSON (novelist, journalist, non-fiction writer; Australia) spent twelve years as an investigative journalist with The Sydney Morning Herald and in 1999 was the founding member of the Journalism and Media Studies program at the University of Tasmania. Author of six books of non-fiction, she currently lectures on journalism and writing at James Cook University. In 2006 she published her first novel, The Curer of Souls. Her participation is partly funded by James Cook University. Bibliography • writing sample

Sergey SOLOUKH (prose writer; Russia) was trained as a mining engineer. He is the author of numerous works including the titles Papa Zappa (1997) and The Lonely Hearts Club of Hunter Prishibeyev, as well as three collections of short stories. For three successive years, he was awarded the prestigious Kazakov Prize (2003, 2004, and 2005). He lives in Siberia with his wife and two children, where he works as a business manager for a mining equipment production company. He participates courtesy of the Open World Cultural Leaders Program. Bibliography • writing sample

Ekaterina TARATUTA (novelist, fiction writer, philosopher, editor; Russia) graduated from Novosibirsk State University, first from the Department of Linguistics, and then from the Department of Philosophy. She lectures on social philosophy at St. Petersburg State University, from where she received her PhD. She also works as a freelance columnist, and is regularly published in newspapers and both academic and non-academic journals. Taratuta’s Russian-language publications include works of fiction (‘One Hundred and One Minutes,’ 2007, ‘The General Hygiene of Dr. Andreas,’ forthcoming, ‘Fishes and Frogs,’ forthcoming), and an academic text titled ‘A Philosophy of Virtual Reality,’( 2007). She participates courtesy of the Open World Cultural Leaders Program.
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Alexander ULANOV (poet, critic, translator; Russia) earned a Ph.D. in engineering from Samara State Aerospace University, where he is currently an associate professor of aircraft engine design. Though he does not consider writing to be his principal occupation, he is extremely active in the Russian literary scene. Ulanov has nearly 350 publications to his credit, including works of poetry, short fiction, book reviews, articles on modern Russian literature, and translations. More information about this author can be found at http://www.vavilon.ru/texts/prim/ulanov0.html. He participates courtesy of CEC-Artslink. Bibliography • writing sample