Tomaž Šalamun (Slovenia) was born in Zagreb in 1941, Tomaž Šalamun (pronounced Toh-MAH-sh SAH-la-mahn) lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is one of the foremost figures of the Eastern European poetical avant-garde. Considered Slovenia's greatest living poet, Šalamun attracted critical notice with his first collection, Poker, which was published when he was only twenty-five. He is revered by many American poets for his unique surrealistic style. His books have been translated in 19 languages and nine of his thirty-seven books of poetry have been published in English. His most recent ones are There's the Hand and There's the Arid Chair (Counterpath Press, 2009, translated by Thomas Kane and others); Blue Tower (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, translated by Michael Biggins); The Book for My Brother (Harcourt, 2006, translated by Christopher Merrill and others); Poker (Ugly Duckling Press, 2003, 2008, translated by Joshua Beckman); Row (ARCpublications, 2006, translated by Joshua Beckman); and Woods and Chalices (Harcourt, 2008, translated by Brian Henry). Šalamun's many prizes include the Preseren Prize, the Jenko Prize, a Pushcart Prize, the European Prize for Poetry by German town Münster in 2007, and the 2009 'The Golden Wreath' from Struga Poetry Evenings in Macedonia. He also received the 2003 Altamarea Prize in Trieste, Italy and the Festival Prize at Costanza, Romania in 2004. He is a member of the Slovenian Academy of Science and Art. He occasionally teaches in the US, where he was also a Fulbright Fellow at Columbia University, a member of International Writing Program at Iowa, and a Cultural Attaché at the Consulate General of Slovenia in New York. In spring 2008 he was appointed as Visiting Professor in Creative Writing and Distinguished Writer-in-Residence by the University of Richmond, and in 2011 he taught at the Michener's Center MFA in Austin, Texas.
