Forrest Gander, a writer and translator with degrees in geology and literature, was born in the Mojave Desert and lives in northern California. His books, often concerned with ecology, include Twice Alive: an Ecology of Intimacies; Be With, winner of the Pulitzer Prize; and the desert novel The Trace. Gander’s translations include It Must Be a Misunderstanding by Coral Bracho, Spectacle & Pigsty by Kiwao Nomura (Best Translated Book Award), and Names and Rivers: Poems by Shuri Kido. His forthcoming novel-poem, Mojave Ghost, comes out this October.