Forrest Gander was born in the Mojave Desert and grew up in Virginia. He is a writer and translator with degrees in geology and English literature. Among his recent books are Be With, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize, and Core Samples from the World, a Pulitzer and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. His translations include Then Come Back: The Lost Neruda; Fungus Skull Eye Wing: Selected Poems of Alfonso D’Aquino; and Pinholes in the Night: Essential Poems from Latin America (with Raúl Zurita), all from Copper Canyon Press. The Adele Kellenberg Seaver Professor Emeritus of Literary Arts & Comparative Literature at Brown University, Gander lives in northern California.