The Time Tree includes representative selections from poems by a veteran who was born into poverty and tempered in the crucible of war and who devoted himself to rigorous study to become a leading intellectual and award-winning poet of Vietnam. Clear, precise imagery, a sense of history, and a balance of passion and reflection characterize Huu Thinh's poetry, whether his subject is love, war, struggle, or poverty.

Huu Thinh was born in 1942 in Vietnam. During the war, he served as a tank driver and later as a journalist. Currently he is the editor-in-chief of the literary journal Van Nghe and deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Writers' Association. He has published five books of poetry in Vietnam and won numerous awards for his work.