Ashok Vajpeyi is a noted Hindi poet, critic, essayist and translator, and a dynamic presence in the Indian cultural scene. Writer, cultural activist and ex-civil servant, he has played a vital role in building numerous arts institutions. He is the author of thirty-eight books of poetry and criticism in Hindi and the founder/editor of eight journals in Hindi and English. His poems have been translated into several Indian languages, as well as French, Spanish, German, Polish, Russian, Hungarian, Norwegian and Arabic. He is the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award (1994) for his book Kahin Nahin Vahin, the Agyeya Rashtriya Samman (1997) for his contribution to Hindi literature, the Officer’s Cross of Merit (2004) from the Republic of Poland, and the Officier de L’Ordre des Art et des Lettres (2005) from the Republic of France, among others.