Knife Sharpener was started in the months before the author, Iraqi poet Sargon Boulus died, and was eventually published as a posthumous celebration and commemoration of the renowned poet, with a collection of poems, written between 1991 and 2007 that he translated himself, together with an essay, "Poetry and Memory", written especially for this volume in April 2007. It includes a Foreword by Adonis and Introduction by Irish poet Pat Boran, along with tributes and appreciations by fellow Arab poets Saadi Yousef, Ounsi El-Hage, Amjad Nasser, Abbas Beydoun, Abdo Wazen, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Kadhim Jihad Hassan, Khalid al-Maaly, and Elias Khoury and an Afterword by the publisher Margaret Obank.