Biography: The thirteenth-century Persian poet Jelaluddin Rumi has been called the greatest mystical poet of any age. His writings have always been revered in the Persian world, perhaps second only to the Koran, and modern-day scholars often place him in the same category as Shakespeare and Dante. Rumi was born in Balkh (in present-day Afghanistan) in 1207. Fleeing the Mongol invasion, his family eventually settled in what is now Konya, Turkey, where Rumi died in 1273. Rumi’s mystical writings cover every aspect of life. He writes with humour, humility and inspired passion. Like all truly great writers, he possesses the marvelous ability to speak with the voice of our own deepest longings. And in a magical leap of union beyond boundaries and definitions, Rumi’s poetry answers that longing with the voice of the Divine.

Biography: Coleman Barks was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was educated at the University of North Carolina and the University of California at Berkeley. He taught poetry and creative writing at the University of Georgia for thirty years. He is the author of numerous Rumi translations and has been a student of Sufism since 1977. His work with Rumi was the subject of an hour-long segment in Bill Moyers's Language of Life series on PBS, and he is a featured poet and translator in Bill Moyers's poetry special, "Fooling with Words." He lives in Athens, Georgia.

Biography: Michael Green has made an eclectic life the foundation of an artistic career. He holds a BA degree from New York University, attended film school, studied at the University of São Paulo in Brazil and hitchhiked into the Amazon. He joined the legendary Castalia Foundation, worked on germinal light shows with Timothy Leary and, in the summer of 1967, retreated from the group to live in a tepee and experience tribal living and tribal consciousness. Green also started a restaurant and meditation center in Woodstock before moving to Pennsylvania to study with the venerable Sufi master Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. Green has been a wandering monk, craftsman, sign painter, landscaper, illustrator and television art director. Now as an artist and writer, he creates books, calendars and art installations that celebrate the sacred. Green’s books, including The Unicornis Manuscripts, The Illuminated Rumi and The Illuminated Prayer, have more than 2.5 million copies in print. www.michaelgreenarts.com