Ladislav Grosman (1921-81) was born in Humenné, Slovakia to a Jewish family; because of this he spent two years of World War II in a forced labor camp. After the war he moved to Prague to study, eventually earning a doctorate in psychology before turning his attention to writing fiction and screenplays. Shortly after the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968, he emigrated to Israel, where he would spend the rest of his days teaching Slavic literature and creative writing at Bar-Ilan University. Iris Urwin Lewitová (1916-2008) was born in Pontypridd, Wales; after World War II she moved to Prague with her Czech husband. In addition to working as a lecturer in the English Department of Charles University, she was a prolific translator of Czech literary and academic texts. Mark Corner is a prize-winning translator of Czech literature and professor who has taught history, religion, political science, philosophy and European studies at the University of Newcastle, Charles University, the University of Leuven, the Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, and Vesalius College.