W.S. Merwin was born in New York City in 1927 and grew up in Union City, New Jersey, and in Scranton, Pennsylvania. From 1949 to 1951 he worked as a tutor in France, Portugal, and Majorca. He has since lived in many parts of the world, most recently on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands. He is the author of many books of poems and prose, and the translator of numerous volumes. He has been the recipient of many awards and prizes, including the Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets (of which he has also served as Chancellor), the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, and the Bollingen Prize in Poetry; he has also received the Governor’s Award for Literature of the state of Hawaii, the Tanning Prize for mastery in the art of poetry, a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writers Award, and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.