Coleman Barks is the author of four books of poetry including, most recently, Gourd Seed (Maypop, 1993). He has also translated sixteen volumes of Jelaluddin Rumi into English, culminating in the bestselling Essential Rumi (Harper Collins, 1995) and inclusion in the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces (Norton, 1999). He has received the Guy Owen Poetry Prize from the Southern Poetry Review and the Pushcart Writer�s Choice Award, Small Press Category. He taught poetry and creative writing in various universities for thirty-four years. He is now Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Georgia. (2001)
