Raymond Knister was a poet, a writer, a critic, and a journalist. He authored First Day of Spring, My Star Predominant, There Was a Mr. Cristi, White Narcissus, and Windfalls for Cider. He was the first Canadian writer to be published in Parisian magazines alongside personalities such as Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce. Gregory Betts is an assistant professor at Brock University, where he teaches Canadian and avant-garde literature. He is the editor of After Exile: A Raymond Knister Poetry Reader, the acting editor of PRECIPICe literary magazine, and the author of Haikube and If Language. He lives in St. Catherines, Ontario.