Emmanuel Hocquard (1940–2019) was a French poet, editor, and translator who grew up in Tangiers. He is the author of over twenty books, including The Invention of Glass and Theory of Tables, and he has translated into French the work of writers such as Charles Renikoff, Paul Auster, Michael Palmer, and Fernando Pessoa.

Cole Swensen is the author of twenty books of poetry; a collection of hybrid poetic essays, Art in Time; and a volume of critical essays, Noise That Stays Noise. A former Guggenheim Fellow and a recipient of the Iowa Poetry Prize and the San Francisco State Poetry Center Book Award, she also translates poetry and art criticism from the French and has won the PEN USA Award in Translation, the 2024 ALTA National Translation Award, and the 2025 Stephen Mitchell Prize. She divides her time between France and the United States.