Pierre Michon, born in Cards, France, in 1945, is one of France's foremost contemporary writers. He was awarded the French Academy's Grand Prix du Roman for The Eleven (2009), the Prix Decembre for his short novels Abbes and Corps du roi, the Prix Louis Guilloux for La grande beaune (The Origin of the World), and the Prix de la Ville de Paris in 1996 for his body of work. Jody Gladding is a poet and translator. Her most recent collection of poetry is Rooms and Their Airs. She has translated over twenty books from French, including The Serpent of Stars by Jean Giono. She teaches in the MFA program at Vermont Collegeof fine Arts, and lives in Vermont. After devoting a part of her life to specialized horticulture, Elizabeth Deshays, now works as a teacher and translator. She is the author of a study on bilingual education, L'Enfant Bilingue. In addition to Michon's novels, she translated Julien Gracq's La Presqu'ile (The Peninsula). She lives in Provence.