Naoshi Koriyama taught at Toyo University in Tokyo and is now Professor Emeritus. He is the translator of Like Underground Water: The Poetry of Mid-Twentieth Century Japan and numerous other books of verse.

Bruce Allen is Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Seisen University in Tokyo. He has translated several works of the Japanese writer Ishimure Michiko, including her novel Lake of Heaven.

Karen Thornber (foreword) is professor and chair of comparative literature, Harvard University; she is also chair of Harvard's Regional Studies East Asia Program and holds an additional faculty appointment in Harvard's Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Her books include Empire of Texts in Motion: Chinese, Korean, and Taiwanese Transculturations of Japanese Literature and Ecoambiguity: Environmental Crises and East Asian Literatures.