James Lasdun was born in London and now lives in upstate New York. He has published two collections of short stories and three books of poetry. His story The Siege was adapted by Bernardo Bertolucci for his film Beseiged. He co-wrote the screenplay for the film Sunday (based on another of his stories) which won Best Feature and Best Screenplay awards at Sundance, 1997. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in poetry, and currently teaches poetry and fiction workshops at Princeton.