Soseki Natsume is the pen name of Kinnosuke Natsume, born in 1867 in Japan. A prolific author of poetry, fiction and essays, Soseki wrote some of Japan's most beloved novels, including I Am a Cat, Botchan, and Kokoro. He is so revered in Japan that his image appeared on the 1000 Yen banknote for many years.

Edwin McClellan was a leading scholar, translator and professor of Japanese literature at Yale University. He is noted for his translations of Soseki's Kokoro and Grass on the Wayside, and is the author of Two Japanese Novelists: Soseki and Toson. He was awarded the Noma Prize for literary translation and the Japanese government's Order of the Rising Sun.

J. Keith Vincent teaches Japanese literature at Boston University, where he also directs the MFA Program in Literary Translation. His translations include A Riot of Goldfish by Kanoko Okamoto, Devils in Daylight by Junichiro Tanizaki, and Soseki's novel Michikusa, forthcoming from Tuttle.