about the authors

OLIVIA E. SEARS has a BA in Humanities from Yale University and a PhD in Italian literature from Stanford University. A poet and translator of Italian poetry, she is also the editor and publisher of TWO LINES, a journal of international literature translated into English. Her original poetry was featured in the exhibit THEM: an Exhibition of Artists, Scientists, and Designers Concerned with the Entomological Universe (SOMARTS Gallery, San Francisco).

She is the founder of the Center for Art in Translation (CAT), a non-profit organization committed to international literature in translation and cross-cultural exchange in the arts, including school programs devoted to bilingual expression. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and daughter.

ALINE MARE began her career as an artist in the early 1980s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan working in theater, performance, and installation art. She has performed with such luminaries as Richard Foreman, Meredith Monk, Robert Frank, and Robert Wilson. As a member of the collaborative performance group Erotic Psyche, she performed throughout Manhattan at venues including the Kitchen and Franklin Furnace, and on tour in Europe with a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Following the disbanding of Erotic Psyche, Ms. Mare moved to San Francisco to complete her MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute. While at SFAI, she produced the film S’aline’s Solution, garnering international awards. Her body of video work has been exhibited at the Cinematheque in San Francisco, the Whitney Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Ms. Mare was also the recipient of a 1999 Artist in Residence Grant from the Headlands Center for the Arts. She lives in Oakland with her husband and son. This is her first book.

about the music

If you have attended one of our events, you have heard original music composed by Craig Bicknell accompanying the reading. Craig's solo album is due to be released this spring. To be notified of its release or to hear more of Craig's music, write to: craig@nervebox.net.