Alexander Shaumyan was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1962 and immigrated to the United States in 1975 at the age of 13. He started out as a painter but turned to poetry as a more effective medium for expressing his message. His work appeared in many small presses and online journals. He's also done translations of Russian, German, French, Spanish, and Italian poetry. His translation of Nikolai Gumilev has been published online. His translation of Sergey Esenin's last poem appeared in GLAS, Volume 23--the internationally known journal of new Russian writing, edited by Natasha Perova. His poetry has been taught by Professor Gerald Smith at Oxford University, who teaches modern Russian poetry and émigré Russian literature. In 2002 he self-published three books of poetry: Spirit of Rebellion, Canzoni dimenticate and Through the Eyes of Love. He published his fourth book of poetry Place Where Light Is in July, 2003. All the four books received excellent reviews from Laurel Johnson of The Midwest Book Review. They appear in the November issue of the MBR Bookwatch. In 2004 he published two more books of poetry -- What Is a Poet? and From Darkness Came. His seventh book of poetry Thinking of Math and Her came out in 2005.