Marianne Kiauta (1948) was born in Gouda, the Netherlands. She studied biology, Sanskrit and Tibetology at the universities of Utrecht and Leiden and travelled extensively in the Himalaya, South-eastern Asia and Japan, together with her husband on scientific expeditions. She has published haiku, senryu, tanka and linked poetry since 1984 in literary journals and anthologies in Holland, Belgium, Germany, England, Japan, Greece and the USA. In 1993 a selection of her haiku, senryu and tanka poetry appeared under the title Tule voor de berberis (Tule for the barberry) [Dutch]. In 2000 the bilingual [Slovenian and English] Prvi zafran (The first crocus) was published in Slovenia, the home country of her husband. Poldergroen (Poldergreen) appeared in 2002 [Dutch], with haiku that tell about the region of her childhood. In 2003 a tanka collection was published trilingual [Dutch, Slovene and English] with the title Het binnenste van een woord (Notranjost besede, The interior of a word). Next to her daily task as assistant editor of several scientific journals (on entomology, specialized in Odonata, dragonflies), she has a practice in (foot) reflexology.