A.M. Juster is the nom de plume of poet, translator, and critic Michael J. Astrue. His first book of poetry, The Secret Language of Women, won the 2002 Richard Wilbur Award. He has also won the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award three times as well as the Willis Barnstone Translation Prize. A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, Astrue had a long career in the federal government, where he worked in senior positions for four presidents. From 2007 to 2013, he was commissioner of the Social Security Administration.