ALEŠ DEBELJAK (1961.) a poet and essayist, holds a Ph.D. in Social Thought from Syracuse University, New York and is a director of Center for Cultural and Religious Studies, School of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He and his American wife, together with three children, make their home in Ljubljana. A poet, cultural critic, and translator, he has won several awards, including the Slovenian National Book Award, the Miriam Lindberg Israel Poetry for Peace Prize (Tel Aviv) and Chiqu Poetry Prize (Tokyo). He is viewed by critics as one of the leading Central European poets. His books have appeared in English, Japanese, German, Croatian, Macedonian, Serbian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Lithuanian, Finnish, French, Italian, Spanish and Romanian translations. His recent publications in English include The Hidden Handshake: National Identity and European Postcommunism; Reluctant Modernity: The Institution of Art and its Historical Forms; Twilight of the Idols: Recollections of a Lost Yugoslavia; and three books of poems Anxious Moments; The City and the Child; Dictionary of Silence. He is the general editor of the book series »Terra Incognita: Writings from Central Europe« published by White Pine Press, Buffalo, New York.