Jane Hirshfield is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently After. In 2004, she was awarded the 70th Academy Fellowship for distinguished poetic achievement by The Academy of American Poets. She is also editor and co-translator of two now-classic collections of women's poetry from the past, The Ink Dark Moon: Poems by Komachi and Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan and Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area.