Aleš Šteger is a Slovenian poet and editor. He was born in the town of Ptuj in Lower Styria, Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia. He studied Comparative Literature and German at University of Ljubljana. He has published four volumes of poetry--Šahovnice ur (Chess Desks of Hours, 1995), Kašmir (Kashmir, 1997), Protuberance (Protuberances, 2002), Knjiga Reci (The Book of Things, 2005)--and an itinerary on Peru entitled Včaish je januar sredi poletja ("Sometimes, January Is in the Middle of Summer", 1999) as well as a book of essays, Berlin (2007). His books have been awarded and translated into several languages. He lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and works as an editor in the renowned publishing house Študentska založba. Among his editorial work, the most noticeable is a new revisited collection of poems by Edvard Kocbek in 2004, which includes some unpublished poems, as well as an insightful essay on Kocbek's poetic language written by Šteger himself. In 2008, Šteger won the Rožanc Award, the highest prize for essays written in Slovene language.

Brian Henry is the author of five books of poetry, most recently The Stripping Point (Counterpath). His translation of the Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun’s Woods and Chalices (Harcourt) appeared in 2008, and his translation of Aleš Šteger’s The Book of Things is forthcoming from BOA Editions. A Serbian edition of Henry’s poems will appear in 2010. His sixth book, Wings Without Birds, is forthcoming from Salt Publishing.