Aigerim Tazhi (Әйгерім Тәжі) was born in the western Kazakhstani city of Aktobe (formerly called Aktyubinsk) in 1981. She is a graduate of the Aktyubinsk (Zhubanov) State University. Her only book of poetry, БОГ-О-СЛОВ was published in 2003. She has received numerous literary prizes in Kazakhstan and Russia for poems in the collection and in 2011 she was a finalist for the Russian Debut Prize in poetry. She lives in Almaty, Kazakhstan. J. Kates is a poet and a literary translator who lives in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire.
