Alberto Ruy Sánchez (Mexico City, 1951) has published some twenty titles, including the essays "In Praise of Insomnia," "With Literature in the Body," and "An Introduction to Octavio Paz," the poems "To Say is to Desire" and "The Eroticized Forest." He also published a series of experimental books on desire, "Mogador Quintet," a series of novels and documentaries that combine poetry and essays. His work has been translated into a dozen languages, and he has received more than twenty national and international awards in St. Petersburg, Montauban, Chicago, Louisville, and Zaragoza, among others. His first, with Bárbara Jacobs, was the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize in 1987. His most recent, just prior to this book, was the Poestate Poetry Festival Prize 2015 in Lugano, Switzerland, shared with Elsa Cross. He co-directs the publishing house Artes de México with Margarita de Orellana.