Forrest Gander, a writer and translator with degrees in geology and literature, was born in the Mojave Desert and grew up in Virginia. Among his most recent books are the novel The Trace, the poems Eiko & Koma, and Alice Iris Red Horse: Selected Poems of Yoshimasu Gozo. Be With, Gander’s first full book of poems since Core Samples from the World, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, is just out from New Directions. Gander lives in Petaluma, California.