Born in Hungary in 1948, George Szirtes published his first book of poems, The Slant Door, in 1979. It won the Faber Prize. He has published many since then, winning the T S Eliot Prize in 2004, for which he has been twice shortlisted since, most recently for Bad Machine (2013). His translations have won various prizes including the Man Booker International in 2015. Recently he has published a rash of tiny books and chapbooks including Langoustine, Germania, and Notes on the Inner City (2015). His new book is Mapping the Delta (2016). Blog: http://georgeszirtes.blogspot.co.uk/
Padrika Tarrant was born in 1974. She read sculpture at Norwich School of Art, where she developed an unhealthy fixation with scissors and the animator Jan Svankmajer. Fates of the Animals is her third book, following Broken Things (Salt 2007) and The Knife Drawer (Salt 2011). She lives in Norwich with her beautiful daughter and some lovely stuffed animals. She does not entirely trust her cutlery.Website: http://www.padrikatarrant.co.uk/