Sébastien Smirou was born in 1972 in Niort. After earning a degree in journalism, he studied at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, where he enrolled in Roubaud's course in formal poetics. He founded the press éditions rup & rud, coedits the magazine Ligne 13, and has translated a number of American poets into French. Smirou is the author of SEE ABOUT (Fence Books/La Presse, 2017), Un temps pour s'étreindre (2011), Beau voir (2008), and Mon Laurent (2003). Smirou is a psychoanalyst, with a specialization in working with troubled children. He has also translated numerous works from Italian. He lives in Montrouge, on the outskirts of Paris.