ANTONI LIBERA was born in 1949. He graduated from Warsaw University and received his doctorate from the Polish Academy of Sciences. He has been occupied with Samuel Beckett's works for many years, which he has translated into Polish and directed on stage. Libera has translated and published all of Beckett's dramas (1988, 1995), part of his prose work (1982) and also essays and poems. In Poland he produced Beckett's plays chiefly in Warsaw theatres and for television. He has also staged Beckett's dramas in the original in London (1990), Dublin (The Gate Theatre, 1991 and 1999), New York (Lincoln Center, 1996), Melbourne (1997), and most recently in 1999 at the Beckett Festival in London. From 1976 onwards he was in close contact with the playwright, who advised him and gave him many production tips and called him his 'ambassador in Eastern Europe'. Libera has also translated Oscar Wilde, Greek tragedies and opera libretti. Madame, his debut novel, was celebrated as a major literary event and has appeared in translation on bestseller lists throughout the world, as well as being nominated for the most important Polish literature prize, the Nike, and being awarded the prestigious Andrzej Kijowski prize.
SUE MILLER was born in Chicago in 1943, the second of four children in an academic and ecclesiastical family. She grew up reading, writing, and dancing
to 50s rhythm and blues in Hyde Park, and went to college at Harvard. She was married at twenty, shortly after she graduated, and held a series of odd jobs until her son Ben was born in 1968. She separated from her first husband in 1971, and for thirteen years was a single parent in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Sue Miller was married in 1985 to the writer Douglas Bauer. They are now divorced. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her first story was published in 1981. Since then, she has taught in various writing programs in the Boston area. In 1983-84 Sue Miller had a Bunting Fellowship at Radcliffe, which led her to the publication of her first novel, The Good Mother in 1986, and was quickly followed by a collection of short stories. In the 90s she published Family Pictures, For Love, Inventing the Abbots, The Distinguished Guest and While I Was Gone.
The winner of the 2005 INTERNATIONAL IMPAC DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD will have been announced since we went press. Now in its 9th year, the award is the largest literary prize of its kind. Involving libraries from around the world, it is open to books written in any language. An initiative of Dublin City Council, the award is a partnership between the council and the productivity improvement company IMPAC, and is administered by Dublin City Public Libraries.