Scale and Stairs

Heeduk Ra was born in Nonsan in 1966, and educated at Yonsei University. She has published five books of poetry and two of prose, for which she has received many honors. She teaches creative writing at Chosun University, and is regarded as one of the best poets in Korea.

Won-Chung Kim is a professor of English Literature at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, Korea. He is the co-translator of Heart's Agony by Chiha Kim and is currently translatiing an anthology of Korean nature poets.

Christopher Merrill has published seven collections of poetry, including Watch Fire, for which he received the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets; many edited volumes and translations; and six books of nonfiction, among them, Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars, Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain, The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expedition, War, and Self-Portrait with Dogwood. As director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa since 2000, Merrill has conducted cultural diplomacy missions to more than fifty countries.