Poet, essayist, and editor-in-chief of The Yangtze River Poetry Journal, Hu Xian was born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province in 1966. His poetry and essay collections include Rain (2010), Ten Year Lamp (2015), Hourglass (2016), The One Who Never Returned (2016), and Empty Staircases (2017). He has received numerous awards including Poetry Periodical “New Century Ten Best Young Poets” (2009), Wen Yiduo Poetry Award (2011), Xu Zhimuo Poetry Award (2012), Rougang Poetry Award (2014), Poetry Periodical “Best Poetry of the Year” (2014), Tengxun Bookstore Literature Award (2016), Huadi Literature Poet of the Year (2017), October Literary Award (2018), Xingxing Poetry Journal “Poet of the Year” Award (2018), and Lu Xun Literature Award (2018). His works have been translated into English, Korean, Russian, French and Spanish.
Joan Xie is a poet, poetry translator, and lawyer by profession. Her published books include Half-Century Journey (2015, poetry), Looking Back (2016, prose), Nothing Made Me Happier than Finding These Objects (2018, poetry, Beiyue Literature and Art Publishing), Thirteen Leaves: Selected Poems of Contemporary Chinese Poets in English (2018, translation, Three Owls Press), Walk with the Wind (2019, prose, I-Wing Press), Song of Blackness (2020, poetry, Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing), Stone Sculpture and Butterfly-The Selected Poems of Hu Xian (2020, translation, China Youth Publishing), Wall Writing-The Selected Poems of Paul Auster (2021, translation, Flower City Press). An award winner at the 2017 First Moganshan International Poetry Festival in China, her works have been selected into more than ten analogies and published widely in China and United States. Joan Xie’s latest poetry collection Song of Blackness recently received Excellent Book Award of the 2020 Zhongshan Literature Award in China.