Sandor Kanyadi was born in Transylvania, Romania, in the Szekeler Hungarian community, where he finished his education and made a career for himself as a poet and editor of a children’s magazine. Now he is beginning to enjoy international recognition as his works are being translated into most European languages. In 1995, he received the coveted Herder Prize in Vietnam for his translations from the German, and he is regularly featured at international festivals and book fairs. An English-language volume of his selected poems was published in 2002 by Twisted Spoon Press of Prague, under the title “Dancing Embers,” translated by Paul Sohar.

Paul Sohar was born in Hungary, and came to the US as a student, but quit his studies after receiving a B.A. in order to with three unpublished novels. He had more luck with his poetry and short stories. He started to publish in earnest only lately, with an anthology of ten contemporary Transylvanian-Hungarian poets in his translation came out. Since then, his translations and poetry have appeared in numerous journals such as Aurorean, Chelsea, Chiron, Kenyon Review, Parnassus, Partisan Review, Rattle, Seneca Review and more, culminating in the publication of Dancing Embers. His translation of another story book by Kanyadi (The Little Globe-trotting Mouse) was published by Honap in Budapest, Hungary.