Born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province in 1963, Xi Chuan, i.e. Liu Jun, has been living in Beijing since his childhood. After graduating from the Department of English at Beijing University in 1985, he worked as an editor for Huangquiu for eight years. He is currently teaching Classical Chinese Literature at the School of Liberal Arts at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. He was a visiting scholar at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 2002 and a visiting adjunct professor at New York University in 2007. His publications include poetry collections, Roses of China (1991), Geneology of Fiction (1997), and Selected Poems of Xi Chuan (1997) as well as a book of poetry and prose entitled Deep and Shallow (2006). He is the recipient of the October Literary Award (1988), the Shanghai Literary Award (1992), the People¡¯s Literature Award (1994), and the Modern Chinese Poetry Award (1994).