ALAN JENKINS has worked at the TLS since 1981 (for the past 15 years, as Deputy Editor), and has taught creative writing in the USA, London and Paris. His books of poetry are In the Hot-House (1988), Greenheart (1990), Harm (1994: Forward Prize for Best Collection), The Drift (2000), a Poetry Book Society Choice, and A Shorter Life (2005), a PBS Recommendation and shortlisted for the Forward Prize. He received a Cholmondeley Award in 2006. Drunken Boats, containing his acclaimed translation of Rimbaud’s ‘Le Bateau ivre’ and two new poems, was published in 2007.

FIONA SAMPSON has published fourteen books, most recently Common Prayer (Carcanet, 2007, short-listed for the 2007 T.S.Eliot Prize), On Listening (essays, 2007) and Writing: Self and Reflexivity (Macmillan, 2005). Her awards include the Newdigate Prize and Forward Prize for single poem 2006 (short-list). She contributes regularly to The Guardian and The Irish Times and is the editor of Poetry Review.