James Roderick Burns is the author of a tanka collection, The Salesman's Shoes, and a book of narrative sedoka sequences, Greetings from Luna Park, which explores love and commerce in turn of the century Coney Island. He has edited a volume of ghost stories, A Gathering Darkness: Thirteen Classic English Ghost Stories, and two poetry anthologies: Still Standen: A Celebration of the Poet's Life and Miracle and Clockwork: The Best of Other Poetry Series Two. Following a PhD in English at the State University of New York, he returned to the United Kingdom and joined the civil service. He graduated with distinction from Oxford University's MSt in Creative Writing programme and currently serves as Deputy Registrar General for Scotland.