Translated by Martha Collins and the author

Ngo Tu Lap was born in Hanoi in 1962. He earned his first University Degree, in Navigation, in the ex-USSR (1986), and then served in Vietnam Navy as captain of a landing ship. In 1990, he entered the Hanoi Law College, from which he graduated in 1993. After a short time working in the Military Supreme Tribunal, he became a literary editor of the Army Publishing House, then the Hanoi Publishing House, and has worked for several newspapers. In 1996, he earned his Master Degree in Literature in Paris. From 2000 to 2003, he was director of the Inco Development Research Institute (IDRI) in Hanoi. Ngo Tu Lap is now a PhD candidate at the Illinois State University. He is a member of the Vietnam Writers' Union and Hanoi Writers' Association.

Ngo Tu Lap has published 4 books of fictions, two books of poems, three books of essays and many translations from Russian, French and English. He won seven prizes for his writings. Some of his works were translated into English, French, German, and Swedish.

Significant books: The Universe and I, poems, (in Vietnamese & French, Van Hoa, H. 1997, 2000); The Night Flight in June (poems, Van Hoa, H. 2000);  Farewell to the Desert Island (fiction, Van Hoa, H. 1991); The Fifteen-day Month (fiction, Hanoi Publishers, H. 1993, 1994); The Season of Eagles (fiction, Cong An, H. 1995); The Sleepwalking and Other Short Stories (Selected short fictions, Van Hoc, H. 1997, 1998 and  2001), Strange Sleep of Luong Tu Ban (Fiction, Hoi Nha Van 2005, Flights of Labyrinths (essays, Hoi Nha Van, H. 2003), The Wisdom of Limits (essays, Hoi Nha Van, H. 2004).

Martha Collins' book-length poem Blue Front is forthcoming from Graywolf Press. She has published four collections of poems, most recently Some Things Words Can Do, as well as a chapbook of poems, Gone So Far, just published by Barnwood Press. She has co-translated two books of translations from the Vietnamese, The Women Carry River Water by Nguyen Quang Thieu (with the author), and Green Rice by Lam Thi My Da (with Thuy Dinh). She is Pauline Delaney Professor of Creative Writing at Oberlin College.