Ashok Vajpeyi is an award-winning Hindi poet, critic, translator, and editor. One of India’s most respected cultural figures, he has authored more than twenty books of poetry and literary criticism. He has been a recipient of national as well as international honours, including the Sahitya Akademi Samman and the Dayavati Modi Kavishekhar Samman in 1994, the Kabir Samman in 2006, the Officer’s Cross of Merit from The Republic of Poland in 2004, and the French Officier de L’Ordre des Art et des Lettre in 2005. Vajpeyi also founded Bharat Bhavan, a renowned multi-arts centre in Bhopal He was the first Vice-Chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University in Wardha and the chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi from 2008 to 2011.