James Sutherland-Smith was born in Aberdeen in 1948 and was educated at Leeds University. He set up the first Creative Writing Course in English in Central Europe, using writers from Britain and Ireland. His work as a Peacekeeping Manager enabled him to experience first-hand the difficult era of transition in the Balkans particularly through his close contact and work with the armed forces of Serbia and Montenegro. His previous poetry collections include A Singer from Sabiya (1979), Naming of the Arrow (1980) and At the Skin Resort (1999). He has published two Carcanet collections, the most recent of which is Popeye in Belgrade (2008). James Sutherland-Smith and his wife Viera are the principal translators of Slovak poetry into English, with a number of collections of individual poets and three major anthologies published in Britain, America, Canada and Slovakia.