"Coleman Barks is a pioneer and renown scholar on Rumi, the great Sufi. In his elegant and exquisite way, Coleman has made Rumi as popular as Shakespeare to the world and continues to inspire us with the Rumi's ecstatic poetry."
Deepak Chopra, author of The Shadow Effect and Jesus "Really, what other book would anyone ever need?"
Naomi Shihab Nye, author of Honeybee "Coleman Barks found Rumi floating in some Georgia lake and brought him back to life. What a blessing! Rumi says, 'Some nights stay up until dawn, as the moon sometimes does for the sun.' Coleman has stayed up all night, and every reader is grateful."
Robert Bly, National Book Award-winning poet and translator "Rumi's Big Red Book tells us: 'Compassion builds a door, Restlessness cuts a key.' I am forever grateful to Coleman Barks, restless, yearning to find the bridge from Rumi and Shams to the world we presently inhabit. He is truly to Be Loved for making this 'transaction with beauty'..."
Debra Winger, Actress "Without question, we can credit Coleman Barks with making Rumi accessible to American readers through his modernized renditions of the best-known poems of the great Islamic mystic... Richly sensual yet never flowery, Barks' language emphasizes Rumi's embodied spirituality in a book to savor."
Booklist (starred review) "An emeritus English professor at the University of Georgia, Barks has spent 34 years working on Rumi's poetry - you could even say that Rumi has been the secret companion musician Barks has danced to."
Los Angeles Times "Barks has become internationally renowned for his translations... Rumi: The Big Red Book is the culmination of his work."
Shambhala Sun