Born in 1951, INGRID DE KOK grew up in Stilfontein, a South African gold mining town in what was then the Western Transvaal. When she was 12 years old, her parents moved to Johannesburg. In 1977 de Kok emigrated to Canada, where she lived until returning to South Africa in 1984. She is the author of six books of poetry, including Seasonal Fires, her first book to be published in the United States.