Nina Cassian, born in Romania in 1924, has published over sixty books, including works of fiction and children’s books. She is also a composer and translator (notably of three Shakespeare plays), and was a journalist and film critic. Since 1985 she has lived in New York City, having remained in the West for fear of reprisals in the then communist Romania of Ceauşescu. Her work is now published again in Romania. Her selected poems in translation Life Sentence (Anvil 1990; new edition 1998) confirmed her worldwide reputation.