Homero Aridjis (1940– ), twice a Guggenheim Fellow, was born in Michoacán, of Mexican-Greek ancestry Poet, novelist, columnist and environmental activist. He is President of International PEN and was Mexican ambassador to the Netherlands and Switzerland. His work has been widely translated. Among other marks of recognition, in 1997, he received the Prix Roger Callois in France for his prose and poetry. He has been a visiting professor at Indiana University, New York University and Columbia, and held the Nichols Chair in Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of California, Irvine. He has been an editorial page columnist at the Mexican newspapers La Jornada, Reforma and El Universal since 1985, publishing hundreds of articles about environmental, political and literary topics.