Milan Rihter was born in 1948 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, today Slovakia. He studied German, English and Swedish linguistics in Bratislava and in 1990 he received a Fulbright Scholarship in Los Angeles, USA. He was the vice-president of the Slovakian PEN in 2001-02 and since 2001 he has served as the first president of the World Academy of Art and Culture. He is the member of the Norwegian and the European Academy of Poetry. So far he has published 9 poetry collections in Slovakian, two plays, essays and short stories. Selected poems from his poetry are translated in German, Norwegian, Bulgarian, Czech, Arab, French, Hebrew, Spanish. Richter’s poems are translated in 29 languages and published in more that 50 anthologies and magazines. His plays are translated in English, Spanish, German, Serbian and Norwegian. He has received numerous recognitions and awards.