Born in Nara in 1947 and raised in Osaka, Mikiro Sasaki was Poet in residence at Oakland University in Michigan, and Part-time Lecturer in music literature at Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Music. Since his first collection The Whiplash of the Dead (Kozosha, 1970), he has published Searching for Wild Honey (22nd Takami Jun Prize), Tomorrow (20th Hagiwara Sakutaro Prize), and other works. His essays and critical collections include Nakahara Chuya (10th Suntory Arts Award), Asian Sea-route Travel (54th Yomiuri Literature Prize) and many other titles. He was also Editor of the 6-volume Nakahara Chuya Complete Works: New Edition (Kadokawa-shoten).