Rachel Tzvia Back received her M.A. from Temple in 1990. Her thesis manuscript was titled Border Crossing. Her books include The Buffalo Poems (Duration Press, 2003), Azimuth (Sheep Meadow Press, 2001), Litany (Meow Press, 1995), and the forthcoming On Ruins & Return: Poems 1999-2005 (Shearsman's Books). Her translations of the poetry of Lea Goldberg were published in Lea Goldberg: Selected Poetry and Drama (Toby Press) and were awarded a 2005 PEN Translation grant. She is the author of the critical volume Led by Language (University of Alabama Press), a ground-breaking monograph on the work of American experimental poet Susan Howe. Back's current major poetic project is an English edition of a collection of 43 Hebrew poets protesting Israel’s continuing occupation of the West Bank – an anthology entitled With an Iron Pen: Hebrew Protest Poems 1984-2004. Back’s poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Dreaming the Actual: Contemporary Fiction and Poetry by Israeli Women Writers. Back teaches at Oranim College and Bar-Ilan University in Israel.