Arjen Duinker is one of Holland's most highly respected poets with over ten collections to his name, and an array of prizes including the prestigious Jan Campert Prize in 2001. Yet Duinker, by his own admission, does not fit into the mould of a Dutch poet, being far more concerned with reality than with abstractions. His poetry is very much about the reality of things as separate, self-contained entities, about flowers, stones, mountains, wind and water; he consistently tries to shed his own personality to make room for the things he experiences without thinking. This is a collection full of laughter, exuberance, tenderness and the poet's humanity, brought alive to an English-speaking readership for the first time in Willem Groenewegen's painstaking and sensitive translation.

Sailor's Home is a miscellany (or anthology) of poems by six poets who came together for a private festival in London in October 2005. The poets are Arjen Duinker (Netherlands), W.N. Herbert (UK), Uwe Kolbe (Germany), Peter Laugesen (Denmark), Karine Martel (France) and Yang Lian (China), whose idea the festival was. Each poet takes the phrase "Sailor's Home" and builds a work from it in his or her own language. The festival, featuring the six poets and invited guest, and the book as a record of the event, demonstrate how the poets interact acroos languages and cultures. All the poems are presented in their original languages and in English translation. While the festival was a one-off event, the poems remain, and the book stands testimony to the creative impulse amongst friends whose poetry can cross borders. A fascinating document.