HAN DONG was born in 1961 in Nanjing, where he continues to live and work as a fulltime writer. He has a long history in the Chinese contemporary poetry scene: he was not only very influential in avantgarde poetry in the 1980s but continues to be highly regarded as a poet today and has a seriously devoted following. He has edited groundbreaking literary magazines and websites such as Them and Today and was a leader of the 1998 "Fracture" movement, which encouraged independent writers to break free of conventional literary values. Today, characteristically, he continues to court controversy with his blogs and essays. He is also a respected novelist-his first, published in translation as Banished! by University of Hawai'i Press, was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008. He has won independent poetry prizes in China, and has made several literary tours in the West in recent years.