Biography

Born in 1955 and raised in Phu Tho Province, poet TRẦN QUANG QUÝ joined the army just out of high school and served on the northern front during the American War from 1972 to 1975. He moved to Hanoi in 1983 to attend Hanoi Cultural University, and has made the city his home since then. He is currently the Deputy Editor-In-Chief of the Vietnam Writers’ Association Publishing House and Deputy Head of the Task Force for Young Writers. Four collections of his poetry have been published in Vietnamese, including Viet tang em trong ngoi nha chat (Writing For You in a Narrow House, 1990); Mat tham (Soulful Eyes,1993); Giac mo hinh chiec thot (Dreams in the Shape of Chopping Boards, 2003); and Sieu thi mat (Face Supermarket, 2006); plus one bilingual collection in Vietnamese and English, Canh Dong/The Human Field (2009). Forthcoming in 2011 are a new collection of short stories, Bo song trang sang (River Bank, Shining Moon) and a nonfiction book, Phong van, phong van va phong van (Interviews, Interviews and Interviews). Quy’s poems and short stories have earned him awards from Army Literary Arts magazine (1984), Literary Arts weekly newspaper (1990, 1995), The Hanoian newspaper (1996) and The Vietnam Writers’ Association (2004).

Poet and translator NGUYỄN PHAN QUẼ MAI is the author of the poetry collections Forbidden Fruit (Arts & Literature Publishing House 2008, reprint 2009); Touching Sunrise’s Hair (2009); and New Poetry 360 Degrees — 8 Faces (Vietnam Writers’ Association Publishing House, 2009). Translated anthologies include Dawn Season (selected poetry of Nguyen Hong Hai, The Gioi Publishing House, 2009); Memory of Black Eyes (selected poetry of Nguyen Trong Tao, The Gioi Publishing House 2009, translated with Hilary Watts); and The Human Field (selected poetry of Trần Quang Quý, Vietnamese Writers’ Association Publishing House 2009, translated with J. Fossenbell), which received the Vietnam Writers’ Association 2010 Book Prize.

Poet, teacher, translator, and freelance writer J. FOSSENBELL has published poems and critical essays in Wazee Independent Journal, A: Literary Magazine and Agora as well as in the Van Nghe Arts & Literature Newspaper in Vietnam. Her poems have been performed at conferences, art festivals, and other events. She founded the international Hanoi Writers’ Workshop in 2009, and translated The Human Field by Trần Quang Quý (Vietnam Writers’ Association Publishing House, 2009).