Samuel Hazo is the author of books of poetry, fiction, essays, and plays, and the founder and director of the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh. He is the translator of Adonis's The Pages of Day and Night (Marlboro Press, 2000). His book of poems Just Once: New and Selected Poems received the Maurice English Poetry Award in 2003. His latest books are The Stroke of the Pen: Essays on Poetry and Other Provocations (2011) and a novel, The Time Remaining (2012). A National Book Award finalist, he was chosen the first State Poet of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1993, and he served until 2003.