Tomaž Šalamun has published more than thirty books of poetry in his home country of Slovenia and is recognized as one of the leading poets of central Europe. Šalamun’s honors include the Prešeren Fund Prize, the Jenko Prize, a Pushcart Prize, a visiting Fulbright to Columbia University, and a fellowship to the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. His most recent collection, There’s the Hand and There’s the Arid Chair, is forthcoming from Counterpath Press in 2009.  Several collections of his poetry have been published in English, including: Woods and Chalices (Harcourt, 2008), The Book for My Brother (Harcourt, 2006), Row (Arc Publications, 2006), Blackboards (Saturnalia Books, 2004), Poker (Ugly Duckling, 2004), A Ballad for Metka Krasovec (Twisted Spoon, 2001), Feast (Harcourt, 2000), The Selected Poems of Tomaž Šalamun (Ecco, 1988, edited by Charles Simic), The Four Questions of Melancholy (White Pine, 1997), and The Shepherd, The Hunter (Pedernal, 1992). His poems have been translated into more than twenty languages.  

Photo by Kari Klemela