Tomaž Šalamun (1941–2014) published more than fifty books of poetry in Slovenia. His poetry has been translated into over twenty-five languages and received numerous awards, including the Jenko Prize, the Prešeren Prize, the European Prize for Poetry, and the Mladost Prize. In the 1990s, he served for several years as the cultural attaché for the Slovenian embassy in New York and later held visiting professorships at various universities in the United States.