Nazim Hikmet Author

Nazim Hikmet (1902-63), Turkey's greatest modern poet, was a political prisoner in Turkey for more than fourteen years and spent the last thirteen years of his life in exile, mainly in Russia, travelling widely through Europe and further afield. Ruth Christie was born and educated in Scotland. She studied Turkish at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She has taught English literature and has been translating novels, short stories and poetry from the Turkish for many years. Richard McKane is a poet and the translator of 'Selected Poems of Anna Akhmatova' and, with Elizabeth McKane, of Mandelstam's 'The Moscow Notebooks' and 'The Voronezh Notebooks'. Anvil has published 'The Pillar of Fire', his selection from the poetry of Nikolay Gumilyov, and the anthology 'Ten Russian Poets' (2003). Ruth Christie and Richard McKane have jointly translated two selections from the Turkish poet Oktay Rifat, 'Voices of Memory' (1990) and 'Poems of Oktay Rifat' (Anvil, 2007).