A native of Alsace, Dr. Pierre Kaufke is officially retired from the University of West Florida. He holds a Ph. D. in Comparative Literature from the University of South Carolina. Very active at UWF as well as in his profession, he has given numerous professional and public speeches and presentations. In 1993, he was awarded the title of Florida's French Teacher of the Year by the American Association of Teachers of French. His research interests include the theory of translation as well as scholarly translations (A Village Chronicle, The World of Bonsai, The Golden Thread) and collecting poems for an anthology of French poetry. He has also published over 40 articles on bonsai