Mary Jo Bang is the author of eight books of poems—including Louise in Love (Grove), A Doll for Throwing, and Elegy (both Graywolf), which received the National Book Critics Circle Award—and translations of Dante’s Inferno, with illustrations by Henrik Drescher, and Purgatorio (both Graywolf), as well as Matthias Göritz’ Colonies of Paradise (TriQuarterly Books). She teaches creative writing at Washington University in St. Louis.